Nationals World Series Champs Parade

We usually hang out across the street from the archives on constitution avenue. But yesterday we walked to the rally area by the Capitol building and then to the Washington monument where the nats parade would start. It was a lovely fall day, but cold enough to wear winter jackets and hats. I dug out the red nationals cap for my husband. Since we no longer live on Capitol Hill we decided to drive in in from northern Virginia ten miles away, park in the old neighborhood, and go from there. We arrived at 1100 and had three hours to kill. It’s getting harder and harder to walk and stand around for several hours and we felt it when we got home. It ended up being five miles! But we couldn’t let the day go by without showing up for this very exciting day. After all, we went to the hockey team championship parade and had little to do with them. Baseball is in the family and it was with nostalgia that we went - for my dad, my brother, memories, and finally a festive event that everyone was excited about. I took a lot of photos and videos and sent them to my grandson who grew up with the nationals since he was a baby. It’s been an unbelievable last few weeks. I think it all made baseball history books. 

Nationals World Series Champs

We moved to Washington DC thirteen years ago. About that same time the Nationals baseball stadium was being built in the Navy Yard only a few blocks away from our Capitol Hill condo. Our grandson grew up with the names Strasburg and Zimmerman and went to many games and loves to play baseball. My brother was a left handed pitcher in high school, was drafted by the Orioles, and has attended almost every Nationals game rain or shine. In our house, growing up, there were baseball games on all the time and my dad missed only one of my brother’s games. My dad and brother went to all the spring training events at Al Lang Field in Florida. Many autographs and slide photos were taken. My husband and I went to a couple of outings, but it was always too hot or too cold and we didn’t have the patience or interest. We’ve been following the ball club this season, but since September we have been paying even closer attention to the drama. We were in Milwaukee when the Nationals took the wild card spot. I’ve been texting my grandson about the games. With each game that followed I kept checking the scores but couldn’t watch. I texted my sister in law whenever they were heading to the park. When the World Series games started, we followed along but still didn’t watch. Then with game three we decided to tune in and were totally disheartened with three losses in a row. This didn’t look like a winning team at all and we couldn’t take the angst. And then it happened! The spark we hadn’t seen ignited in game 6, and the rest is history. The Washington Post had the wrong score on the first headline and it was corrected quickly. I don’t know why I am so emotional about it - maybe it’s in the genes, maybe it conjures up memories of my dad and my brother, maybe it’s because we lived just a few blocks away and saw Nationals fans walking past our house with their heads down so many times, maybe it’s our hometown, maybe we just need a happy and joyful story that everyone can celebrate. When the hockey team won the championship we walked over to watch the parade roll down constitution avenue. We didn’t even watch any of those games but have an interest in special events on the Mall. I wonder what we’ll be doing on Saturday?