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| nats fans newest mascot: mr. jinx! |
I just read an article on grantland by Bill Barnwell. who claims to be a redsox fan who attended the nats/cards game 5.
lets just say reading this A) reinforced my belief the nats fans never had any concept of losing or the threat of losing, and B)reinforced my theory that as a whole nats fans woudl bounce back from a game 5 loss in record time.
both of which reinforced my satisfaction that the nats got bounced the way they did.
a few excerpts, followed by my thoughts:
"I figured that if the Nationals won, it was going to be a raucous night in D.C. And if they lost … well, I wasn't all that emotionally invested in the team, so it wouldn't be a big deal, right?"
this was the writers stance. but as the article played out, it seemed like everyone felt the same way.
" I was a total stranger who wasn't even wearing anything Nationals-related, but it felt like I was sitting in seats with people whom I'd been suffering alongside for 30 years."
yep, that sounds like nats fans.
"I started wondering whether I would get fired from Grantland if I changed allegiances and Simmons noticed."
ok, i can admit that the entire nats 2012 season is a blueprint for pulling in a legion of new fans. likeable team, a nice stadium, a bevvy of thrilling wins.... there is really no problem with getting won over by a team like his.... my problem is, no one admits that it was this season that did it. everyone claims to have been fans for years.... only no one buys it. repeat. NO. ONE.
"After the Nationals bullpen recorded eight consecutive outs by way of the K at the end of Game 4, the crowd was bloodthirsty for strikeouts. With five strikeouts through the first four innings, Gonzalez — coincidentally, the starter whose arrival in town had made me fall for the Nats — was feeding the din."
ok, this confuses me... the starter whose arrival in town made me fall for the nats? i thought this guy was a sox fan who just parachuted in for a fun game 5 experience? the nats got gio gonzalez in the winter, right? is this guy literally convincing himself he's been a nats fan since december WHILE HE'S AT GAME FIVE!?!?!?!
"...after the bottom of the eighth <where the nats scored to go up 7-5>, this gentleman got up and announced that he was leaving. He said he had a race to run the following day and wanted to beat the crowds to the Metro ride home, and despite audible gasps and looks of sheer horror from the folks around him, he shook everyone's hand, got up, and walked up and out of our section."
ya see. this guy is the reason the nats deserved to lose. i know its not representative of the fanbase as a whole, but this NEVER happens to a team that has fans who have been rooting for the franchise for more than one season. repeat. NEVER. i don't care if you pick the biggest front runner mets fan who's ever lived. he does not walk out of a series clinching game in the 9th inning. no matter what.
"There were five different two-strike pitches in the ninth inning, in which the Nationals had a chance to finish the game with a victory. I don't need a game story or a box score to know that; I know it because I took a photo of every single one of them with my iPhone as they happened, as did a fair number of the people around me. "
once again we have a guy who dropped in to see the exciting game 5, who has convinced himself hes a nats fan, and guess waht - a ton of other "fans" are behaving the same way, trying to take a photo of the last strike!.... i'm starting to think the reasons for the nats losing can be placed squarley on the fans, who seems to have violated every single jinx rule in this entire baseball spectator handbook. they all got what the deserved. i think the only person i even feel slightly bad for is ryan zimmerman (who i also think is the only person who can claim he's been a nats fan since 2005)
"It was as if everybody looked at the scoreboard and saw who was coming up for the Nationals. Werth. Harper. Zimmerman. 7-7? No big deal; we were probably just meant to win it in the ninth anyway. I started envisioning how much fun it would be to see Harper connect with a Motte fastball and make his way around the bases before the ball landed."
they'll never think this again. they might hope it happens. but to think it'll become a reality? kiss those feeling goodbye.
"When <the nats pitcher> struck out jason motte to mercifully end the <top of the 9th> inning, the entertainment guy at the stadium threw out a "Strikeout!" graphic and played Blur's "Song 2" over it. It felt like a bit they'd cued up for the game-ending, series-winning strikeout that somehow accidentally got played after a four-run disaster of an inning. "
this is hilarious. just hilarious. hey, even the sound guy is new to this playoff thing. i really wish i noticed this when it happened during the game. the opposing pitcher getting fanned to end the inning that probably ended the nats season... WOOO-HOOOO!!!
"After the loss, I expected a fatalistic, despondent crowd to mutter all the way to the Metro. I was wrong. Everybody I was around was in disbelief, but they were actually pretty serene and bemused about everything that went down. People were upset about the loss, but in that "Aw, it would have been fun to party tonight and have more playoff baseball!" way, not the "Our lives are collectively ruined until March" way."
so maybe these fans need another harsh lesson in 2013. if you're shaking off a loss this fast, your soul needs to be crushed again.
"The one Nats fan in our group was more despondent than most, and we led him over to the jukebox to play some appropriate music. Most of his selections didn't last long. "Everybody Hurts" was cut off by the bartender after a minute. "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" faded out somewhere around 90 seconds. What did make through, though, was the Johnny Cash cover of "Hurt." By the time the chorus rolled around, in fact, the half of the bar that was adorned in Nats attire had joined in and turned it into a sardonic, wistful sing-along."
ummm..."the most despondent" nats fan was playing music at a bar... REM's "everybody hurts"... i am sorry. you are not despondent if you are playing songs like this (which is basically mocking yourself) after that kind of a loss... this clown then plays johnny cash's "hurt" and the nats fans SING ALONG!!!!....
goodness gracious, these guys have a ways to go. if you want a checklist on how not to act during a huge game, and after a huge loss, the nats fans provided a pretty perfect checklist right here.
