When the Expos moved to DC in 2005 and became the Washington Nationals, they remained in the NL East division. Aside from a few "off" seasons, most teams in the NL East have been pretty successful in the years since. In 2005 for example, the Nats ended with a season record of 81-81 and STILL were last in the division.
The past few years the Phillies have been the team to beat. They have also become our most hated rival. Last Sunday the Nats magic number was still 1 to clinch the division and they were on their way home to play the Phillies on Monday night. I knew I had to be there-either a Nats win or a Braves loss would mean we were NL East Champions...and doing it at home against the Phillies? Yes please.
I drove to the stadium after work and had to wait for G because he FORGOT OUR TICKETS AT WORK. I was so mad. Luckily we only missed the first inning.
I have NEVER been so nervous attending a game before. We were losing 0-2 most of the game, so I was closely watching the Pirates/Braves score on the out of town scoreboard, along with the entire stadium. They were about half an inning behind us-it was the top of the 9th in Pittsburgh with the Pirates leading when people in our section began to crowd around a guy watching the end of the game on his iPhone. Baseball=uniting strangers for good.
As soon as the Pirates won/Braves lost, shouts went up of, "IT'S OVER!" and everyone was screaming/cheering. Gradually, everyone in the stadium found out via word of mouth, and a huge roar was building. When the players found out the dugout erupted, and they all started hugging/etc. The video guys immediately flashed the first picture on my post on the jumbotran and the game kind of stopped for a minute.
The next National to bat after the little break was Michael Morse-the PA announcer introduced him like this: "now batting for your Division Champion Nationals...". Ah. SO COOL. He was smiling real wide and pumping his fist in the air in the on deck circle. The best thing about this was for his last at bat every game, his walk-up song is "Take On Me" by the a-ha's and the music director stops after the "Take on me, Take me on..." part in the chorus and the stadium sings the rest of that line a-capella. It was kind of awesome having this at-bat be the first one after we clinched the division. I'll never forget that moment of singing "Take On Me" with the whole stadium of elated Nats fans.
We ended up losing, so it was kind of strange to look down and see the Phillies line up to shake hands, but then they flashed the Division Champs logo on the screen and everyone went crazy again. The team went to the clubhouse to spray champagne on each other and then slowly trickled back on the field (led by Gio Gonzalez, surprise) to spray champagne and throw beer on fans in the first few rows.
We stayed in our seats for a while taking everything in and watching player interviews on the jumbotran. One of my favorites was FP with the bullpen boys-R and I have a tender spot in our heart for them because two years ago Tyler Clippard waved at us from the bullpen LOL. And the whole group is just a show...they poured beer on FP during the interview and were being there usual selves.
And of course, RZ. So happy for him-no one on the team deserves this more. He's endured a LOT of losing and still signed long-term deals/extensions with the Nationals.
As soon as we found out we clinched, and I mean LITERALLY 30 seconds later, G ran to the team store to get some NL East Champion swag.
I knew that eventually the Nats would be good enough to win the division and go on to the playoffs, but I wasn't positive we would get it done in 2012. I am SO glad I was proven wrong...It has been a long time coming and DC deserves it. Can't wait to see how far they can go.
Oh, and on the way home Lester got his first flat tire.
So thanks to G for helping me change it.
GO NATS GO!!!
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