William F. Yurasko

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I don’t think the Nats should permanently fly the 2012 NL East flag

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wfyurasko

screen capture of Nats victory celebration
The Washington Nationals won the National League East tonight, the first MLB division title in D.C. history. They backed into, having been shut out by the Philadelphia Phillies, the incumbent champion for 5 straight seasons, moments after the Pittsburgh Pirates eliminated the Atlanta Braves from the NL East race. That’s #natitude, right?

This is a great feeling, we’ve waited much longer than the last 8 seasons of Nats baseball. Some of us have waited our lives, others, who are old enough have waited a few generations. Playoffs! The real playoffs too, not the goofy Bud Selig play-in game that the Braves are now going to have to play in.

I don’t want to get too crazy over a division winner though. If they want to fly a flag for the rest of the season, go ahead, but don’t leave it up beyond the playoffs. Hopefully, a World Series champs pennant will wind up on top of the scoreboard to go with 1924 one. There are also two AL Champs pennants flying up there (1925, 1933). I don’t want the division one though because that makes me think of the Braves and their 14 division titles, but only one World Series win. Or closer to home, the Washington Capitals and their many Southeast Division banners, but lone conference championship banner and zero Stanley Cup banners. Keep the bar set high!

For a week now, this seemed inevitable, but the Nats magic number seemed to get smaller only every other day. I was wondering if the anxiety over this would make it more of a relief than anything else, but I’m finding despite the 2-0 loss to the Phillies (ending my bid to win the Cheesesteak/Half-Smoke Challenge, by the way) I’m pretty happy.

But I want more.

Nats clinch NL East, on A1 of The Post – DC Sports Bog

TWITTER REACTION

More tomorrow!