Devoted Nationals fan B.J. Treuting made it back to D.C. to take in the grandeur of the World Series in person.

After moving to New Orleans in July, Treuting, better known to many as “Bearded Natitude,” has been far from the action as the Nats have turned a dreadful start into a dramatic turnaround, ultimately making it to the biggest stage in baseball.

“This was the first year that I missed any home playoff games,” Treuting says. When he arrived at Nationals Park on Sunday, “the place was buzzing. Even coming off a loss, everyone was high fiving, Baby Shark-ing at everybody. It was really special,” he says. “Every one of my friends that I saw, it was very cool to say, ‘Hey, we’re at the World Series and our team is playing in it.’ It just blows your mind.”

For Treuting, the trip to the World Series has personal ramifications—he swore back in 2012 that he wouldn’t shave his face until the Nats won the championships. Seven years later, he’s still bearded and still gung-ho about the team.

Once he found his seat in a field level section on the third baseline, Treuting positioned himself at the edge of it, somewhere between sitting and standing as he cheered for the team.

That’s when the man behind him tapped him on the shoulder, Treuting says, and asked him, “Are you going to sit or are you going to stand the whole game?” Treuting says he replied, “I plan on standing and cheering for the Nats.”

The man started using “unprintable words,” per Treuting, which only strengthened his resolve to stay on his feet. “Standing is a lot better for screaming, yelling, and clapping than sitting,” says Treuting. “It’s the World Series. I’ve been waiting seven years for this. I’m not sitting. I’m standing for the game.”

He says that if the man wanted a quiet, seated game experience, the stands weren’t the place for him. “You can watch from home, you can get a suite ticket,” he says.

But Treuting wasn’t winning over the man behind him. “He kept cursing at me,” he says. After three innings, “I finally had enough—you can only be called choice words for so long.” He ultimately switched seats with a friend in another section, so he could keep cheering the team.

“I’ve been to almost 500 Nats games and I’ve never had any kind of issue with a fan, especially never a Nats fan,” he says. “Mets fans have embraced me, Phillies fans, they’re … okay. So a Nats fan yelling at me?”

When Treuting tweeted about the experience, most responded by saying the man behind him was being ridiculous. But at least one person noted that, “Many of us paid just as much as anyone else in the section, but have accessibility issues. Would love to stand all game but it’s not that simple. Ability for ones knees and back and legs to work is not the same as fandom.”

As the Nationals fan base navigates the team’s first World Series appearance, more than one longtime spectator has dealt with folks in Nats gear telling them to take a seat.

Scott Ableman, the man behind the blog Let Teddy Win, found himself in a similar situation during Game 4 of the National League Division Series. He got cursed out by another fan for standing during the game. He says he’s seen it before, too.

“People wearing Nats gear have not only been asking people to sit down, but yelling at people with profanity-laced tirades,” says Ableman. “I don’t have any patience for that. It happens particularly when the team is behind and you’re the one trying to help get the crowd into it. There are people who only want to cheer when the team is ahead.”

Ableman says it isn’t a hard and fast rule for him. “I try to be courteous and considerate. If I’m standing in front of someone who is extremely short or handicapped in some obvious way, then I’ll try to make an exception,” he says. “But generally speaking, that’s part of the fan experience. If you’re not going to stand during a World Series game, then when the heck are you going to stand up?”

He says having a fan culture where spectators are on their feet is “part of what labels communities as great sports fans.” He points to comments from members of the Nats team who “encourage us to do this, who talk about how it gives them energy, so I have to take the word of the players when they tell me it matters to them.”

(Officially, the organization doesn’t have a specific policy when it comes to standing during games, a spokesperson tells us.)

Still Ableman says he is pleased with the spirit he saw from the fans in the stands this past weekend. “When you score only three runs in three days, it’s tough to keep the energy up,” he says. “But I was very proud to be a Nats fan and watch the fans rise to every possible occasion.”

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