And a Mercedes.

For a moment, it seemed all the anticipation, emotional support, political angling and military-style training would fall short. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln sprinted to early leads. Theodore Roosevelt, meanwhile, hung back and did a few more calisthenic exercises even after the gun went off.

Teddy didn’t get going until his rivals were rounding the right-field corner. But then, something unexpected. A shaggy green figure clad in the apparel of the visiting Philadelphia Phillies jumped out and tackled George, T.J. and Abe, clearing the path for Teddy, wearing a red sweatband and gold running shoes, ran to the finish line.

On the final day of the regular season, Nationals Park erupted with the kind of joy usually reserved for a come-from-behind win by the home team, not one of its mascots.

“The losing streak is over!” a man sitting on the first-base line proclaimed.

An afternoon game on a weekday is usually a more modest affair. Today, Nationals Park was packed with people playing hooky in hopes they would see an agonizing losing streak come to an end.

“It’s the greatest thing since them making the playoffs,” said Lee Wright, who was wearing a Nationals home jersey and one of the recently released caps announcing the team’s playoff berth. “I’m a Washingtonian. I go back to Griffith Stadium,” Wright said.

Lorraine Ondrasick said she brought her six-year-old grandson, Joshua Lewis, to the game because she expected today was the day Teddy would finally beat his Mount Rushmore neighbors.

“I took him out of school for this,” she said.

The interloper in today’s Presidents’ Race, Teddy’s first win afte 525 consecutive losses, was not the real Philly Phanatic, but it might well have been. A few Phillies fans who left their seats during the middle of the fourth inning for a walk around the stadium and missed the race were gleeful when filled in on the fact that a bastardized version of their mascot pushed Teddy ahead.

“The Phanatic did his job,” said Mike Covington, who wore a tie-dyed Phillies jersey and carried the demeanor of someone who just rolled out of a Grateful Dead concert. “He kicked some ass! He represented Phillies nation proudly.”

Right after the Nationals clinched D.C.’s first playoff berth on September 20, the team began teasing fans that Teddy’s first win was imminent. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) jokingly threatened a congressional investigation; the White House, in a rare moment of election-year bipartisanship, agreed.

McCain was among the most enthusiastic to hear about today’s events:

The U.S. Army even got involved on the gag, with a group of soldiers from the Third Infantry Division at Fort Myer, Va. putting the mascot through a “training regimen.”

“He made us happy,” said Pfc. Robert Lewis, one of the soldiers who participated in the stunt. “Let’s hope he stays vigilant.”

With a division championship clinched and most of the Nationals’ starters getting a day off, the Presidents’ Race was the main event. A few minutes after the race, Ryan Zimmerman belted a soaring home run that tied the game 1-1. The Nationals pulled ahead a few minutes later.

Still, the talk was all Teddy, and no one seemed to mind that the long-awaited victory was delivered with a bolt of outside assistance, not even a man of the cloth.

“It was definitely a clean win,” the Rev. Matthew DeForest of Saint Anthony of Padua Parish in Falls Church, said. DeForest, wearing his clerical collar under a Nationals training jacket, absolved the race of any sin. “Teddy will rise again.”

Filed Under: john mccain, let teddy win, nationals park, philly phanatic, presidents races, roman catholic church, theodore roosevelt, washington nationals,