Anyhow.
My brother became a Nationals fan in recent years. I live at Bailey’s Crossroads, in Northern
Virginia. This is very close to
Washington, DC, and on many trips, either to New Jersey or to Prince George’s
County, Maryland, I take the major highway 395 into DC, a route which takes me
past Nationals Park.
On two prior occasions, not during this season, my brother
has brought me to Nationals games. These
were regular season games and losses, sparsely attended with a minimum of
excitement – especially by the fans who were present and not too thrilled to
see their team lose yet again – least of all to the Phillies, who the Nationals
do not seem to like.
This time around the Nationals made the playoffs. I tracked their progress through the
bracket, starting with their wildcard win over the Milwaukee Brewers and their
ultimate faceoff against the Houston Astros.
I did NOT attend any of the local games, and of course did
not go to Houston to attend any away games.
Some games I watched on TV, some games I followed over the Internet, and
Game 6 (10/29) I watched at Nationals Park with my brother and many very
enthusiastic Nats fans who watched the team conclusively defeat the Astros and
keep their hopes alive to force a Game 7 the following evening. I found that experience highly enjoyable,
especially since the Nats won. Although
the game itself was not occurring there, simply being shown on literally every
flat screen TV in the venue, the presence of so many fans, even in the stands –
with the game televised on the huge main monitor – it was almost like being at
the game itself. Oh, and they also gave us free small red towels,
though they look too small to be of much use for anything other than cleaning
your kitchen or bathroom. I’d welcome an
explanation as to their purpose, though I appreciate the gift.
As a member of the Virginia Bar, I have continuing legal
education (CLE) requirements which culminated on October 31, 2019. I had to watch some of these on the night of
October 30, so on that evening I was watching online legal seminars while
keeping track of Game 7 – NATS WON!
WOOHOO!
I mentioned baseball earlier but I’ll mention it again
here in more detail.
Best of 7. Part of what turns me off about baseball,
basketball and hockey is that the playoffs and finals are best of 7 rather than
a single Super Bowl. Either there’s a 4
game sweep – 19 World Series – a 7 game series – 35 World Series – or something
in between. That taxes my patience unless I have some particular connection, as
I did with the Nationals this year. With
the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NBA Playoffs, and the World Series playoffs I’ve
been printing out the playoff bracket and keeping track of the eliminations,
but not watching any actual games. Here
I didn’t actually start watching games until the Nats finally wound up in the final
series against the Astros.
Nats Fan? Actually, only in the loosest sense. I had zero reason to support the Astros, and
as a Maryland native and UMCP graduate I should be an Orioles fan. But
I’ve never had a chance to see a game at Camden Yards, despite passing it
frequently as the main street feeds off I-95 into downtown Baltimore. Likewise, my sole visit to M&T Bank
Stadium, almost next door, was not for a Ravens game but for a Metallica
concert in May 2017. Either way, I don’t
think I can truly call myself a Nats fan, especially since the existing fans
may resent my bandwagon deal with the World Series win. But I’m happy to cheer the team and share
their excitement, joy, and pride at this victory.
Score on Defense. One thing that highly bugs me about baseball
is that you can’t score on defense. The
prior weekend I briefly saw a college football game, in which a defensive
player intercepted a pass in his team’s endzone, burst through the opposing
players, and run the ball all the way back to the opposite endzone for a
touchdown. Awesome, huh? But in baseball your best case scenario when
your team is on the field is strikeouts, fly balls, or ground outs.
Mostly I catch and understand baseball. Back when we played Intellivision, the MLB
baseball game was one of our favorite games, especially with its crude umpire
voice. “YER OUT!” Sadly, a game with no runs by either team is
dull, UNTIL players actually get on base and then a player hits a home run. This tedious business of ball…ball…strike…ball…FOUL
(effectively unlimited foul balls because they don’t count as a third strike)….whoa!
is that a home run?? Oh, dang, too far
to the left or right, just a big foul ball…etc. wears me down and puts me to
sleep. Then there’s a ground out or a fly
ball – OUT! Do home runs offset runless
innings? Not sure. I suppose the bottom line is that I’m
probably not going to be interested enough in watching a game unless I care for
one of the teams playing, e.g. the Nationals.
Yankees. The only other stadium I’ve been to is Yankee
Stadium, the current version, seeing them crush the Oreos with my buddy
Dave. He described the PA system as
being a bit on the loud side, “Abu Gharib” as he put it. I picked Aaron Judge as my favorite Yankee
player.
Rendon. If I had to pick a favorite National, it’s
Anthony Rendon, the third baseman. He hit
key home runs in games 6 and 7, and caught some left field line drives and
zipped them over to Zimmerman to knock out the runner on his way to first base. The funny thing is he’s originally from
Houston, Texas, and those two games were in Houston. D’oh!
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