Deal with Astrogate as you must, but let’s not forget: the Dancing Baby SharkNats are defending World Series champs. They don’t want to forget, either.
My colleague (and editor) Manny Gomez tweets a splendid thought: “Alright, I’m done with the Astros scandal. Who’s [sic] with me?” I’m sure he won’t mind if I see and raise: “All right, I’m still ready to celebrate the Washington Nationals World Series triumph. Who’s with me?”
If you read Thomas Boswell in yesterday’s Washington Post, the Nats sure are. Give them an inch, and they’ll talk yours (and Boswell’s) ears right off your head about their favorite things from that unlikely romp to the Promised Land. Even if some of theirs might not be some of yours.
“A lot of guys in here are upset that we won the World Series,” said World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg, “and we are being overlooked because some guys cheated.” That state of upset lasts just long enough until you, like Boswell, start asking assorted Nats what their favorite October moments still are.
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Strasburg, who loosened up his once-notoriously stoic game face as the postseason went on, is one of them. Though his favorite moment came off-season, and not when he closed his eyes, clicked his heels, and whispered, “There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home!” as he signed a brand-new $245 million deal that makes him what he wanted to be, a Nat for life.
“Taking my daughter to kindergarten every day and just being a dad,” Strasburg told Boswell, adding without provocation, “Someday I hope I’ll be talking to grandchildren and tell them about the ’19 World Series—and not really be ashamed of it at all.”
So what’s to be ashamed of?
Now hear this, Nats and your fans. You just bagged the city’s first major-league level World Series title since the legendary Homestead Grays, based in Washington, won the final Negro Leagues World Series.
And would you like to be reminded what happened in the year the old Senators won either Senators franchise’s only World Series championship by way of Hall of Famer Walter Johnson pitching three shutout relief innings to help finish it? Let’s see.