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Go Nats!
TownHall ^ | 4/15/05 | Charles Krauthammer

Posted on 04/15/2005 4:43:47 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher

WASHINGTON -- David Brooks of The New York Times wonders whether, as a lifelong Mets fan, he is morally permitted to jump ship and pledge allegiance to the new team of his (relatively) new hometown, the Washington Nationals (nee Montreal Expos).

It's a charming dilemma, but it raises a more fundamental question: What is with this rooting business in the first place?

It is one thing to root for your son's Little League team. After all, he is your kid, and you paid for his glove -- and uniform, helmet, bat, and, when he turns 9, cup. You have a stake in him, and by extension his team.

But what possible stake do grown men have in the fortunes of 25 perfect strangers, vagabond mercenaries paid obscene sums to play a game for half the year?

The whole thing is completely irrational. For me, this is no mere abstract question. I have been a baseball fan most of my life. I could excuse the early years, the Mantle-Maris era, as mere childish hero worship. But what excuse do I have now? Why should I care about these tobacco-spitting, crotch-adjusting multimillionaires who have never heard of me and would not care if I was dispatched to my maker by an exploding scoreboard?

Why? I have no idea. True, my interest cooled for a decade when, at age 15, I discovered girls. But then one day, living in Boston and almost totally indifferent to the game, life took a fatal turn. I tuned in to the 1975 World Series and happened upon the single greatest game ever played. By the time Game 6 was over, I was hooked. Again.

Carlton Fisk's 12th-inning home run dance was just the icing. I was hooked by the improbable glory of what came before: Dewey Evans' spectacular catch off Joe Morgan in the top of the 11th, George Foster nailing Denny Doyle at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, and the most improbable home run I'd ever seen: Bernie Carbo's 3-run pinch tater -- after a couple of flailing swings -- to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth with two outs, two strikes and hopelessness in the air.

That did it. For the next 10 years, I was a fan again -- straining at nights to catch West Coast late games on a Sony transistor, checking box scores first thing in the morning.

Then came the 1986 World Series and the Great Buckner Collapse. At that point, I figured I'd suffered enough. I got a divorce. Amicable, but still a divorce. With a prodigious act of will, I resolved to follow the Sox -- but at an enforced distance. I refused to live or die with them. Which is how I got through Grady's Blunder -- leaving Pedro in too long -- in Game 7 of the 2003 Red Sox-Yankees playoff.

It was a hard fall for Sox fans, but I came through it beautifully -- feeling delighted, indeed somewhat superior, at my partial emancipation from the irrationality of fandom (far more troubling than the pain). Thus a free man, almost purged of all allegiance, I watched with near-indifference as the Montreal Expos moved to Washington. Little did I know.

The Washington Nationals are born. I do not know a thing about them. I do not know a single player on the team. I have no residual allegiance to them -- even though I grew up in Montreal and remember well their opening 1969 season at absurdly chintzy Jarry Park -- because I never cared about the Expos.

But it is a new home team. And I am a bit curious. So I'm listening to their second game, a come-from-behind win in which no-name center fielder Brad Wilkerson hits for the cycle. Next day, a nifty comeback: Jose Vidro hits a game-winning homer in the 10th.

I'm beginning to ask the Butch Cassidy question: Who are those guys? Then another comeback, another game-winning dinger, this time by Jose Guillen, a refugee from the Anaheim Angels, shipped out after, let us say, an altercation with his manager. And then yet another surprise victory against the fearsome Atlanta Braves, a ridiculously impossible comeback with two outs in the ninth.

Presto. It is 1975 all over again. I begin to care. I want them to win. Why? I have no idea. I begin following day games on the Internet. I've punched not one but two preset Nationals stations onto my car radio. I'm aghast. I'm actually invested in the day-to-day fortunes of 25 lugheads I never heard of until two weeks ago.

This is crazy. I've relapsed, and I like it so much I've forsworn all medication.

Go Nats.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baseball; dc; nationalpasttime; washington
Baseball is back in the Nation's capital...
1 posted on 04/15/2005 4:43:48 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher
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To: Molly Pitcher
Corrected link:

Go Nats!

2 posted on 04/15/2005 4:45:35 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher (We are Americans...the sons and daughters of liberty...*.from FReeper the Real fifi*)
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To: Molly Pitcher

I love CK, but I think he stole the title of his article from a guy who writes for the American Airlines inflight magazine. http://americanwaymag.com/aw/issue/shahin.asp?archive_date=4/1/2005


3 posted on 04/15/2005 4:54:57 AM PDT by GWB00
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To: Molly Pitcher; wingblade

OK, maybe I'm weird, but I like the image of CK following MLB, especially somewhat against his will.


4 posted on 04/15/2005 4:57:12 AM PDT by hoosier_RW_conspirator
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To: Molly Pitcher
"Go Nats"? Well, I wish the Republicans in the Senate would get some!

What? Oh, "Go NATS." That's different.

Never mind.

5 posted on 04/15/2005 5:03:52 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee (Honestly - would anybody be surprised if it was revealed George Felos is a necrophiliac?)
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To: Molly Pitcher

Years ago, I used to go with my father to watch the Senators play. Ahh...memories.


6 posted on 04/15/2005 5:17:02 AM PDT by Tennessee_Bob (This tagline is Bush's fault.)
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To: hoosier_RW_conspirator

A-Ha, Shack! Did you think you could slide that one past me? George F. Will vs. CK anytime! I pick GFW by 4.


7 posted on 04/15/2005 5:20:44 AM PDT by wingblade ("What is your conceptual continuity?"- FZ)
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To: L.N. Smithee; All
LOL!

Yes, those baseball memories.... I love baseball....

8 posted on 04/15/2005 5:28:06 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher (We are Americans...the sons and daughters of liberty...*.from FReeper the Real fifi*)
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To: Molly Pitcher
I am as big a sports junkie as I am a news junkie. As a Bay Area resident my entire life, I have always been fiercely loyal to my home teams (Currently: Giants, 49ers, Sharks, Warriors) even when they stunk. But with the NHL lockout stopping the Sharks' steady march to elite status, the 49ers' greased slide to all-time depths, the Giants always being one good player short of winning their first World Series (now that the Red Sox have won it all again, the Giants have the fourth longest championship drought), and the Warriors' revolving door of malcontents and underachievers, it's been depressing lately. But I will never become a fan of, say, the Yankees just so I can say that a winning team is MY team.

While they will miss the playoffs this year due to their why-wait-lets-collapse-now early season, the Warriors have shown signs of life with the acquisition of Baron Davis. The Warriors are at this moment just as good as any team in the league, and proved that with a victory over league-leading Phoenix and triple-OT loss to the Spurs. I can't wait till next year, although I am nervous about how they might screw up the draft....again.

It sure is nice to watch the Lakers' free fall. Kobe Bryant thought he was Michael Jordan and was going to carry his team to the title on his back? And he didn't even need a coach? Ha haaaa! The ego has landed!

Without Shaq, the Lakers are baq to the rest of the paq!

9 posted on 04/15/2005 5:28:31 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee (Honestly - would anybody be surprised if it was revealed George Felos is a necrophiliac?)
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To: Molly Pitcher

Just glancing down the roster, shouldn't they be the Washington Inter-Nationals?


10 posted on 04/15/2005 5:32:14 AM PDT by Hatteras
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