Wow. Times change.
Four years ago, I wrote this post trashing the local pro baseball team for their pathetic play. Four years later, the Nationals sit in 1st place after a three-game sweep of the Red Sox in Fenway Park. In fact, they've been sitting in 1st place in the NL East most of the 2012 season. I'll admit it: I'm impressed.
Led by talented (MLB-best?) starting pitching, a rebound year from Adam LaRoche, and the energizing play of rookie Bryce Harper, this team is quite different than the 100+ loss team that first played in Nationals Park. The Nats are currently 35-23 and 2 games ahead of the Braves. They have the 2nd-best record in the NL AND the 2nd-best record in MLB.
This week, my Yankees (currently 34-25 and a 1/2 game out of 1st in the AL East - the Yanks are also coming off a sweep of the Mets this weekend) come to town. I look forward to seeing my favorite team play on Sat. afternoon, but I'm just as excited to see the Nats playing so well. New York isn't going to have a wall in the park against this never-say-die DC team.
From today's POST, some words from Boswell:
With the Nats leading the strong NL East thanks to the best team ERA in the sport (2.98), the savvy baseball reporters in New York and Boston praised the Nats as fresh protagonists and worthy additions to the game’s grand theater in this and future years.
“The most fascinating team in baseball,” the Boston Herald said.
Like a blurred shape in a dim room that suddenly jumps into crisp resolution when a light is switched on, the Nats have suddenly come into focus. They had been noted previously; now they will be closely observed.
and...
What the cognoscenti at Fenway Park gushed over this weekend, Nats Park will display for years. All this good cheer guarantees nothing except that, from now on, the Nats will be watched intently here and nationally, too. Washington has joined the main characters on baseball’s stage for the first time since the 1930s.
True, it’s hardly an empty proscenium on which the Nats find themselves. They’re part of a crowd of Rangers and Dodgers, Cardinals and Rays, Yankees and Braves, perhaps 10 fine teams with obvious prospects, clubs that might do anything or not much.
Let's hope both the Yanks and Nats keep rollin' into this weekend's series. Of course, I want my Yanks to win every game this weekend; but, I also want the Nats' NL East rivals to lose, so they don't lose ground in the division race. The local baseball fans deserve a winner. Maybe they can do what the Caps can't do - live up to the hype in the postseason.
GO YANKS. GO NATS (but, not this weekend).
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