Courage is not a spectator sport.
Ah...you have to read the intro to Jim Hartley's history of the Expansion Senators. He looked through all of his old score-cards -- can't believe he kept them (!) -- and concluded just what I paraphrased. It was not just loyalty to follow the Nats...it takes courage.
For example, my beloved 1959 Senators lost 19 games in a row, breaking the major league record. Honest: take a look at that big red glob in Baseball Reference between July 19, 1959, and August 5. Go game-by-game and imagine us 10 year-olds, and the Washington heat, and those losses. Wonder about a team with three guys who hit 30 home runs or more, including the AL HR leader, plus Roy Sievers who was hurt part of the season, but who had hit 39 homers in '58, and 42 in '57.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/WSH/1959.shtmlThen examine this game, June 18, 1961, first game of a double-header against the Boston Red Sox. Go inning-by-inning, and read through the 9th. For delicate readers: Nats had a 30 - 32 record, leading 12 - 5 with two outs in the 9th. And then...
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS196106181.shtml