The Boys of Summer are gearing up again, but this time, with curlier Ws. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, via Flickr.
By Andrea Klee
This time of year, right before spring training really gets underway, is full of optimism and predictions among baseball fans. Your shiny new team—packaged or cobbled together over the off-season—has yet to take the field together, and anything can happen between spring training and the World Series: 162 games need to be played out. Sure, dourness does reign among longtime baseball watchers (let’s call them “Cubs fans” and certain anonymous commenters on baseball blogs who prognosticate that they know much more than those so called experts, e.g., professional scouts.). However, for the most part, fans can dream of their team actually making it. And for us on the Hill, our neighbors to the south—the Washington Nationals—are closer than they’ve been in the seven years since coming to D.C.
In a series of upcoming posts, we’ll give you 10 reasons to get excited about the team in 2012 (in no particular order). (We’ll also include several other reasons to keep yourself cautiously optimistic.)
Here’s the first two …
Davey Johnson
Former Nationals’ manager Jim Riggleman’s mid-season meltdown, where he abruptly quit following a unprecedented run of 11 wins in 12 games, pulled successful baseball man Davey Johnson out of retirement. He stepped in from the behind-the-scenes job he was holding with Nationals. The team—which was over .500 for the first time that late in the season since 2005—wavered in those first few weeks, possibly from the psychological fallout from losing their head guy when they were doing so well. It was a shock to everyone, and it probably did affect the team’s performance. Further, Davey hadn’t managed a team since 2000 and was likely a little rusty. However, Davey does bring the managing credentials of one title and five league championship series appearances.
With a late-season run similar to the streak around the Riggleman fiasco, the team finished with a 80-81 record—a pretty major accomplishment given the disastrous years previous. Something is happening there, and Davey could be just the guy to guide them.
The Fans
A funny thing happened near the end of the 2011 season. I’ve been a Nationals season ticket holder since 2008, and I’m used to the fans in the stands cheering on the visiting team, rather than root-root-rooting for the home one. So, it was quite a surprise that in late August and September, Nats Park became a sea of red hats bearing curly Ws, rather than red birds. And people were paying attention to the games, not just to the main event (the Presidents’ Race). And cheering! The buzz around the team had reached out to those hometown fans that may not have been as loyal when the team lost 100+ games in back-to-back years. Or maybe new fans were showing up. Either way, the team thrived with the fans that cheered and jumped up and down as new callup pitcher Tommy Milone hit a home run into the bullpen on his first pitch, first at bat (my favorite memory of 2011! Too bad he was traded to Oakland). It was clear to me that the fandom had turned the corner. It wasn’t just random people just going to the ballpark; these were people who knew what was up, who had studied the players. And, they will probably be back in April with renewed optimism over some interesting moves the front office made in the offseason.
Stay tuned for the rest of this series …