The Long and Winding Season

One of the things that frustrates me about Major League Baseball (or any professional sport, for that matter) is the media hype.  Before this year's baseball season had even started, "experts" had already made their predictions, picked their favorites, and crowned the next World Series champion.  The problem with that is that there are 162 games that have to be played between Opening Day and the playoffs, and a LOT can happen during that time.  If your team is predicted to be the next best since gel nail polish or precooked bacon and doesn't end up making the playoffs, it's a big disappointment.

That's what the Washington Nationals are currently facing - a disappointing end to an up-and-down season plagued by injuries, inconsistency, and bad managerial decisions.  The players are dejected, tempers have flared in the dugout, and fans have been left with a bad taste in their mouths.  How do I feel about my beloved Nats not making the playoffs this season?  I'm actually OK with it (no, really, I am TOTALLY OK with it!), and here's why:

First of all, the Nationals had a terrible time out west in August, losing to the Dodgers, Giants, and Rockies.  That awful road trip put the Nats further behind the NL East-leading Mets, who just could not lose a game in August or September.  It was pretty clear halfway through August that the Mets would be the team to beat.  So if you tell yourself at that point that your team sucks, it won't be such a big let-down when they don't make the playoffs.

Another thing that affects a team's success (or lack thereof) is injuries to key players.  The Nationals had their share of injuries throughout the season - the players in their top-notch lineup that was the talk of baseball during Spring Training only played one or two games together during the whole season, with long stints on the Disabled List by Denard Span and Ryan Zimmerman and shorter stays by Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendón.  There was so much inconsistency in the lineup because of injuries that you didn't know who was going to play from one day to the next.

Then there's pitching. Yes, Max Scherzer pitched an almost-perfect no-hitter, and yes, Stephen Strasburg is healthy and pitching incredibly well (too little too late, since he didn't get good until late August).  But the bullpen was pretty dismal throughout the entire season.  Drew Storen was the closer in the beginning, but despite doing a decent job, was replaced in his role by hot-head Jonathan Papelbon, who came over from the Phillies with the condition that he become the closer.  So Storen moved to the setup position, where he absolutely sucked.  He blew some pretty important games in which the Nationals had been leading when he took the mound, and in early September he was so frustrated that he ended up punching a locker and tearing a ligament in his thumb (and subsequently being out for the rest of the season).  Doug Fister lost his starting role and was moved to the bullpen, Gio Gonzalez was not as reliable as in years past, and poor Tanner Roark was jerked around, being moved from starter to the bullpen to the minors and back to starter.  Jordan Zimmermann remained consistently awesome, but we all know he's not returning to the Nationals next year (and neither is Ian Desmond, the other big-name free agent in the team).

So yeah - I'm OK with my Nationals not being in the playoffs because honestly, they don't deserve to be there.  If they had made it, it would have been too stressful, knowing they were inconsistent and probably wouldn't be making it past the first round.  That doesn't mean I won't be watching the playoffs - there's a LOT of baseball still to be played (and watched), and for Pete's sake, the Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs!  I have decided to root for the Pirates and Blue Jays, but since I'm not a die-hard fan of either team, if they end up losing, it won't bother me too much.  So I'm going to enjoy my October of post-season baseball, and I'm going to eagerly await the announcement of this year's National League MVP, which should be given to Bryce Harper, the bright spot in the Nationals this year.  I've been a Bryce-basher in the past, but he matured a LOT as a player this season and deserves the award (since he's leading the National League in home runs and batting average).  Go Bryce, go Pirates and Blue Jays, and for the love of God, go away Cardinals - I'm tired of seeing you in October!

Are They Baseball Players, or Cows?

When I finished graduate school, I was determined to go on to law school with hopes of becoming a sports agent.  Jerry Maguire was going to have nothin’ on me – I was going to represent high-profile athletes and I was going to negotiate contracts that were worth millions of dollars, including the contract of my millionaire baseball player husband.  Well, things didn’t quite go that way – I was burned out from so much studying, and at the age of 24 I was in a hurry to be a grown-up, so instead of going to law school I bought a house.

I don’t believe in regrets, so I am perfectly happy with my engineer husband, two great kids, a crazy dog, and a little house in the heart of a great city.  When I stop to think about what my life would have been like as a big-time high-powered sports agent, I conclude that I would have been miserable.  Rich, but miserable.  It is the sports agents (and the team owners and General Managers) who make the business of professional baseball such a turn-off for so many fans like me.  When you ask a baseball fan why they like the game, they might mention the excitement of visiting a ballpark to catch a game between two rival teams; following a young player’s career from the minors through retirement; the thrill of a well-executed double play or a nasty fastball.  No one says “I like baseball because I enjoy watching overpaid athletes being traded around like cattle at an auction” or “I just love when my favorite player is traded to another team and I can no longer watch him day in and day out on local broadcasts.”  And surely no one says “I love baseball because the players give it their all despite being underpaid.”  Baseball is a business, and its rich players are the chess pieces that get wheeled and dealt no matter what the price or the team loyalty (or lack thereof).

One of the toughest things for me as a fan has been trying to explain the business of baseball to my ten-year-old son, who fervently follows the Washington Nationals and feels like he knows the players like if they were close relatives.  When I told him last week that reliever Tyler Clippard was traded to the Oakland A’s for Yunel Escobar, he was heartbroken.  “The Nationals don’t need another shortstop!” he said (Escobar is being moved to second base, which he hasn’t regularly played).  And when the Nationals signed free agent pitcher Max Scherzer for a gazillion dollars earlier this week, he said “That makes six starting pitchers!”  I had to explain to him that both Doug Fister and Jordan Zimmermann would become free agents at the end of the 2015 season, and if they were going to sign with other teams after this season anyway, they might as well get traded so the Nationals could get some players in return.  He was not happy.  Why would they get rid of last year’s best starter – the guy who pitched a no-hitter on the last game of the season (Zimmermann)?  No idea.  Why would they get rid of such an excellent-fielding and consistent pitcher (Fister)?  I wish I knew.  But now my son thinks that the Nationals’ General Manager, Mike Rizzo, is a heartless Grinch who doesn’t care about the fans.  Well, that’s what the business of baseball is all about, son; no one said it was pretty and happy and full of Koom Bah Yah.

I, the practical one, always think about the effects of a trade on a player’s family.  Do they pack up and move to a new city, or do they stay put in their off-season home?  And it’s not just the wife and kids who are impacted – when the Nationals announced the Clippard trade on Facebook, Tyler’s grandmother posted her appreciation to the Washington fans and said “I guess I’ll have to get used to green and gold!”  I Facebook-stalked her (that’s what she gets for not making her profile private!) and her wall is filled with pictures of different family members decked out in red, white, and blue Nationals garb at different games throughout the past few years.  They all looked so happy watching and supporting Tyler – now they have to send their patriotic-colored fan wear to Goodwill and buy all new jerseys and foam fingers.  That’s a pain.  And unless you live in San Francisco, Oakland is not exactly close to anything, so I don’t know how often Grandma Clippard will be able to watch her grandson pitch.

On the bright side, Spring Training is less than a month away.  I know; hard to believe, right?  Plus we still have the Super Bowl to look forward to as well as March Madness (this year I will be filling out my brackets based solely on school mascots).  And my husband and I are going to this year’s annual meeting of our local SABR chapter (Society for American Baseball Research) in Alexandria, Virginia, so that should be interesting.   Hang in there with me, friends; opening day will be here before we know it!