Entry 4 – 3/17/2020

**Cue Pinkfrog’s Baby Shark in the background**

In less than 2 years, DC sports have done more for their fandom than they have in the last 25 years. And believe me, I am not complaining. I’m just stating a fact. The Washington Nationals led one of the biggest comeback stories of all time and brought home their first championship in franchise history. This story will be made into an ESPN 30 for 30 one day; it’s that good. The reason it was such a feat was the fact that it was shrouded by a team accused of the biggest cheating scandal in sports existence. There isn’t much evidence that the Houston Astros cheated in the 2019 season, but you know the old adage – once a cheater, always a cheater. But I digress, nothing will taint the magnitude of bringing an MLB championship to the nation’s capital for the first time in over 80 years.

I was lucky enough to attend game five of the NLCS where the Nats trounced the Dodgers in extra innings to go to the World Series and it was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. The energy and excitement reminded me of a headliner at Firefly or my college graduation. I saw grown men in tears, people decked head to toe in shark costumes, music and dancing in the streets, fans flooding the surrounding bars at midnight on a workday, chants of we are the champions, and strangers embracing each other over their love of the great american past time.

Thankfully, the DC government decided to choose a Saturday for the championship parade instead of a random Thursday, like they did two years ago for the Caps parade. Swarms of red took to the streets and it was a great change of pace to see all the unity when there is so much division with the current political climate. Without winning a single home game in the World Series and taking it to game 7, the Nats pulled off the impossible after having a losing record of 19-31 on May 23rd to winning it all on October 31st. Bryce Harper mistakenly said it best at his first press release with the Phillies, “We are going to bring a championship home to DC.”

#FinishedtheFight #Natitude

All the best,

Colin