Whatever happens tomorrow night, this season has been a ton of fun, and the players and coaching staff get my wholehearted thanks for that.
I appreciate them not just for the turnaround they made, one of historic proportions. But even more than that was the way they did it, swimming across turbulent waters with that 100-pound millstone of a bullpen around their necks. I don't follow MLB that closely, but I can't remember another team that made it to the playoffs with such an important and glaring weakness. And they had fun doing it!
Got to admire the guys who were discarded by other teams, then came to D.C. and helped propel the Nats to a wild-card berth. First on that list would be Parra, who not only had such a powerful effect on the team chemistry but also made it more fun for the fans with the home-run dances and the brilliant Baby Shark walkup.
Respect for Ross, Fedde and Voth, who all fought through early-season struggles to provide help at the fifth starter position over the last half of the season -- along with some relief work that helped out as well. Same for Michael Taylor and Andrew Stevenson, stuck with the AAAA label but both providing some assistance either in the regular season or the playoffs.
Maybe best of all were Strasburg and Zimmerman, who took a lot of shots from Nats fans but have proved their worth over the past few weeks. The home run from Zimmerman was as much of a highlight to me as the ones by Suzuki and Turner.
Martinez has earned my admiration by holding this team together through the long slog of a season, for never losing faith in the team and somehow transmitting that to the players. I really believe it was a key factor in the resilience the Nationals have shown, the key ingredient that distinguished this team -- and one that is especially gratifying to me as a fan. As the season played out, I became less and less likely to give up on a game even when we were behind by multiple runs in the later innings. And my increasing willingness to see the games play out to the end paid off time and again. It has made for one of the most positive experiences for me as a baseball fan, a guy who first fell in love with the game as a 7-year-old in 1953.