Nationals manager Davey Johnson waves to the crowd at Nationals Park after clinching a playoff spot. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Last week, the D.C. media bubble was ensconced in a heap of think pieces, rebuttals and even think-ier pieces about whether or not the nation’s capital doubles as a hip place to live.
As you’ll recall, the verdict was “Shut the hell up.”
But this week, there’s a new topic in the “Is D.C. This or That?” debate—the Washington Nationals. The current issue of Sports Illustrated is devoted to the Nationals’ and the Baltimore Orioles’ playoff chases, with the Baltimore piece being authored by no less an authority on normally dismal institutions than David Simon. (The issue also features yet another tribute to Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, at least the third such article Sports Illustrated has run in print this year.)
For the Nationals, Sports Illustrated focuses on the brutal genius of manager Davey Johnson, of whom Tom Verducci writes:
Johnson is described by utilityman Mark DeRosa as “Unfiltered”. This demeanor comes out when asked if the Nationals could have handled their situation with Stephen Strasburg the same way the Braves have handled their young ace Kris Medlen. He said, “No! It’s a crock of [shit] what they’re doing with Medlen. It ain’t anywhere close [to Strasburg]. They’re trying to act like geniuses. Here’s the deal. And their whole life they’re raised to go through a certain process at certain times of the year. And ballplayers go through them in the spring. Now you take Doc Halladay or anybody, and if you start varying that—don’t let him [pitch] for a month? You don’t what’s going to happen.”
And this week, ESPN The Magazine will release its own issue devoted to the frenzy that surrounds D.C. sports—again, basically the Nationals and RGIII—in a long-planned issue timed around the presidential election that just happened to coincide with the Nationals’ successes.
If that’s not enough, the current issue of Washington City Paper is devoted to the Nationals bandwagon. The package is full of fans of other teams warming to the local club’s newly acquired glory atop Major League Baseball:
The 2012 Nationals, too, have successfully fought off serious injuries. Just as the Phillies were fortunate to turn Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth—players other teams didn’t want—into key cogs, the Nationals found superb value in Adam LaRoche and Mike Morse. The team easily molded some of the most talented young players in the world to a foundation of already-promising players like Ian Desmond, Ryan Zimmerman, and Jordan Zimmerman. The front office is hardly immune from criticism, but still made the trade of the year for Gio Gonzalez. The Nats bench even has that scrappy quality.
Those words of admiration come from the former DCist editor and intractable Phillies fan Aaron Morrissey, who appears to be going soft on a team he once maligned at every opportunity.
But, wait! We’re not done. Readers of The New York Times opened their sports sections yesterday to find a trio of essays about Washington baseball, led by an appreciation of the Nationals’ season by deputy Washington bureau chief (and recovering Cubs fan) Carl Hulse. He gives the tantalizing prospect of a team from D.C. going deep into the playoffs a political analogy:
Once as far-fetched as the thought of a positive political campaign, the notion of a World Series in Washington at the height of the presidential race is suddenly not so outlandish. It is exactly the type of hardball this city has been starved for since 1933.
Hulse’s article was packaged with columns by Metro editor Peter Khoury, a fan of the Washington Senators organization that became the Texas Rangers, and Kevin Dowd (brother of Maureen), who lamented the earlier Senators club that became the Minnesota Twins. Khoury, for one, has warmed to the Nats.
And the Times kept going on the Nationals today, with a column by William C. Rhoden about Johnson’s steely resolve:
The Nationals are headed to the postseason. Johnson has performed a feat that should be classified under the rubric The Best Interests of Baseball: he has given Washington a winning team.
Anyone who positively changes the culture of a Washington institution is not simply manager of the year, but a miracle worker.
All this Nationals analysis from all sides. In these situations, we usually tire of the pitter-patter of navel-gazing arguments about whether D.C. is one thing or another thing. But in this case, we demur.
The world might not be able to settle on whether or not D.C. is hip, but one thing is clear: We’ve got a pretty damn good baseball team right now, and the generous coverage feels good.
