From Nuts to Natinals to the World Series
The Evolution of my Hometown Team
The World Serious
My wife Kathy mentioned that I haven’t been writing lately. This is true. I’ve been too riveted to the drama that’s been playing out steadily throughout the month of October — the march of my hometown team, the Washington Nationals, through the playoffs to the World Series, aka The Fall Classic.
My earliest baseball memory is of my then hometown team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, squaring off against the mighty, and mightily favored, New York Yankees in what I thought was the “World Serious”. I was just shy of my 6th birthday then.
My Pirates beat those legendary Yankees in 7 games with one of the most dramatic, most remembered plays in the history of the game. Light-hitting, slick-fielding Bill Mazeroski, Number 9, leading off for the Pirates in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7, with the series tied at 3 games apiece, and the score tied at 9 runs apiece, got hold of the second pitch thrown to him and launched a series-ending, walk-off homerun over the left field wall at old Forbes Field to put the final dagger in the mighty Yankees. It was 1960, and those Pirates were playing in their first World Series since 1927. The Yankees had won 7 of the previous 11 World Series played, and would win the next two after that year. But, 1960 belonged to the Pirates.
I still remember old Yogi Berra, playing left field for the Bronx Bombers, hanging his head in defeat as he watched that ball sail over the wall, while Bill Mazeroski lost his mind, circling the bases while fans streamed onto the field to mob him, along with the whole Pirate team, at home plate. Those Pirates had stunned the world with their pluck and determination to beat a team many felt they had no right even being on the same field with. That was my introduction to baseball, my earliest memory.
Baseball Returns to DC
59 years later, my hometown team is now these Washington Nationals. They’ve had a hard time earning respect in their time. I’ve been their loyal, diehard fan since Day One, when they moved to DC from Montreal in 2005, where they had previously been the Montreal Expos.
They had been owned by Major League Baseball for several years, and Major League Baseball was trying to choke the life out of them. They had initially wanted to contract the number of teams in the league, and were slowly draining the life out of the Expos organization, while they were still in Montreal. When the players’ union wouldn’t let them shut the team down, they moved them to Washington, DC, where two previous major league baseball teams had failed to stick. But, it hasn’t worked. This team has stuck. Largely because so many baseball hungry fans here in the DC area have been stuck on this team, since the day they arrived. WE LOVE OUR NATS!
I went to their first game ever, played up in Philadelphia. I went up there with a busload of old Washington Senators fans who had waited 33 years for a baseball team to return to DC. That was quite a journey, through the past right into the present. I met a couple who have been my favorite fellow Nationals fans ever since — Hugh and Lisette. I am admittedly a huge fan, but those two — they are in a whole different league of fandom. They have seats right behind the Nats’ dugout, and are rarely not at the games. I love those guys!
The Rubber Chicken Man
Hugh is a true legend. He’s known as the Rubber Chicken Man, for his ceremonial “sacrifices” of rubber chickens, whom he will behead for good “juju” for the Nats, whenever they need it. Hugh’s always got some crazy antic up his sleeve. In that unforgettable first season, one of the players tried copping a bag of peanuts from a peanut vendor right before the start of a game. The vendor wouldn’t give up the nuts without being paid — players don’t carry cash on the field.
Hugh, sitting there with his peanuts, pulled out a fresh bag, and yelled, “Hey, Carlos (Baerga) — want some nuts?” He tossed the nuts in the air, Carlos caught them, and down into the dugout he went with his nuts, a happy ballplayer.
Nuts to Nats
The Nats, who had begun the season playing mediocre ball, pulled off a great come-from-behind victory in that game. Next game, Hugh brought an extra bag of nuts. Right before the game started, Carlos popped up out of the dugout, looked around, and Hugh yelled, “Hey, Carlos — want some nuts?” — and he tossed the bag in the air. Carlos caught them, ducked down in the dugout, and the Nats won again. Two in a row!
This continued for ten straight games. Nuts to Nats, and the Nats just kept winning. At the end of that long homestand, Hugh brought in a big bag full of nine bags of nuts, for their upcoming road trip. He gave the big bag to Carlos to sustain him, and the team, on the road. They kept winning and swept into first place in the NL East. They stayed in first for the next two months. It was truly nuts!
I was at most of the games, but Hugh was there every night. Until that fateful night, when I went over to say hi before the game, and Hugh was nowhere around. I called him up — he had a bad cold, and wouldn’t make it to the game. Would I mind pinch-hitting and taking care of the nuts for the Nats? I said, “put me in, coach!”
I bought a bag of peanuts, and when Carlos popped up out of the dugout right before the game, I yelled, “Hey, Carlos” and tossed those nuts high in the air. He didn’t see them at first, and I almost panicked — Oh no, what if those nuts bean him in the head, and he winds up on the Injured List? But, at the last minute, he looked over, snatched those nuts right out of the air, and the Nats won again that night. I felt like the box score in the papers should have had my name in the fine print at the bottom — “Assisted win with Nuts — Pete Bridgeman”.
That summer, ESPN the Magazine did a spread on the fans of the teams in the NL East. They interviewed the players about their favorite fans. When they got to the brand new Nationals, they asked them if there were any little old ladies who liked to bake them cookies? Carlos piped up, “No, but there’s this little old Jewish guy who always gives us nuts!” Next thing I knew, they had a photographer taking Hugh’s picture in the stands for the magazine spread, and sure enough, my right arm wound up in the shot that wound up in ESPN the Magazine. (Yes, the same arm attached to the hand that delivered the nuts to Carlos that time to help secure another Nats win!)
That team eventually came back down to earth, and finished the season with an 81–81 record. They would not manage a winning season for their first seven seasons in town.
My Grand Plan
For the year they moved into their new ballpark, 2008, I had concocted a hair-brained scheme of my own for the team. The original Nationals, aka Senators, way back in 1908, had pulled off a publicity stunt for the team, where legendary pitcher Walter Johnson threw a ball from the top of the Washington Monument to catcher Gabby Street, waiting far below on the National Mall. That’s a long way down.
At the end of the 2007 season, I’d gotten clearance through the National Park Service, and approached the Nationals’ President of Baseball Operations, Stan Kasten, about pulling off the same stunt, exactly 100 years later, on August 21st, 2008, the following season. He said, “As long as Brian (Schneider, Nats’ catcher) is okay with catching that ball thrown from way up there, I’m good with it.” I talked to Brian, and he was game. We had it all set up — then, Brian got traded to the Mets before the 2008 season, and my grand plan fizzled out!
They moved into their new ballpark that year (2008). That was my last year as a full season ticket holder. The park was great — the team, well, they were mired in mediocrity by then. My own career as a competitive softball player had taken off, and I was playing in up to 100 games a year, myself. There simply wasn’t the time to get out to as many games at the new Nationals Park.
The Natinals
But, I was there, sitting with my friends behind the Nats’ dugout, at a game in 2009 when two of the Nationals, Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn, came out of the dugout to play, wearing jerseys that were missing an “O” in their team name — their jerseys read, “Natinals”. The lady sitting beside me pointed out the spelling error to the guys, and a couple innings later, they’d found jerseys with the correct spelling. But, not before ESPN and the whole world of sports had gotten a hold of the story, and clips of them playing in misspelt jerseys. They were pilloried for the rest of that season, as the team that was so bad, they couldn’t even spell their own name right on their jerseys — they became known as the “Natinals”. As a diehard fan, it was truly a low point.
Playoff Woes
But, with several seasons of high draft picks, they began to assemble a team built to compete. Beginning with the 2012 season, they began fielding teams that not only could spell their name right, but could play some serious ball. They made it to the playoffs that season, and were up by 5 runs going into the 9th inning of the deciding game of the first round, when the wheels fell off the wagon. They blew that lead and the game, and quickly became the team that couldn’t win the big ones. Again in 2014, 2015, and 2017, they made it into the playoffs, with great regular season records, only to be beaten in the first round by teams with less gaudy numbers, but who’d managed to peak at the right time.
Stay In the Fight!
This season, after starting out terribly, with a record of 19–31 after 50 games, the second worst team in the league, they caught fire, and have never looked back. The manager implored them to “stay in the fight”, and that became their team motto. “Just go 1–0 today — win this one, and don’t worry about the rest.”
They turned their season around, and just barely made it into the playoffs as one of the 2 wildcard teams. That meant they had to play the other wild card team in a one game, winner gets in and loser goes home, game. They were down 3–1 going into the late innings, when they came back to win it. They faced the Dodgers in a 5 game series, and were down 3–1 in the 8th of the deciding game, but came back with a couple of homeruns, one by the aforementioned Ryan Zimmerman, now a 35 year old veteran, and the other by this 20 year old kid who was only 10 when the Natinals lost their “O”. They went on to win that one, and haven’t looked back.
In the league championship series, they faced the Cardinals, the same team that had beaten them in the playoffs in 2012. They simply swept the series, 4 games to none.
My hometown Nationals were finally in the World Series! The franchise, which began in 1969, had never been to the World Series. No Washington, DC, team has been there since 1933, and only the 1924 Senators have ever won the World Series for Washington.
Like my 1960 Pirates, they came in as underdogs, as the Houston Astros were heavily favored to win the series, the biggest favorites in the last 12 years. The series started in Houston, where the Nats only hoped to take one of two, then come back to DC for the next three. Instead, the Nats took both games, one a squeaker, 5–4, and the other a blowout, 12–3.
The very first run in the first game was hit by the one player who’s been here from the start — Ryan Zimmerman started the scoring with a home run. The Kid, Juan Soto, got a homerun, a double, another hit, and knocked in 3 runs. They only need to win 2 of the next 5 games to be World Series Champions.
It’s been a glorious run, watching these guys show up, day in and day out, staying in the fight, looking to simply go 1–0 today, what they’ve been doing since they got off to their terrible start of 19–31. Tonight, they’ll play the first World Series game in DC since 1933. I’m pretty sure their team name will be spelled correctly on their jerseys. For all the diehard baseball fans in Washington, DC — it’s been a long time coming. Let’s enjoy this night.
Oh, and, we just learned yesterday that, throwing out the first pitch tonight will be their first closer from 2005, Chad Cordero. He’s going to throw the first pitch to — Brian Schneider. Hmmm…I wonder if I could get Brian to stop by the Washington Monument this afternoon, to play a little catch?
