You were pleasantly surprised when the Nats made it to the playoffs in 2012, and even wrote about it. But when they made it back to the playoffs a number of times after that, something unexpected happened. You actually started to care again.
And with the team’s improbable trip to the World Series this year, you’re somewhat dazed and you’re trying to get your head around this seminal moment. That’s not easy, given Washington’s complicated and sometimes cruel experience with big-league ball.
You remember a game you went to with your family about a half century ago. You were sitting in the bleachers along the third-base line as the Senators took on the Minnesota Twins. Hondo was there, of course. So was Harmon Killebrew, the great Twins hitter who had previously played with the first incarnation of the Senators. And so there, in one game, you saw a bridge of sorts between the two different Senators teams.
Truth be told, you now feel a little bit like an interloper. You haven’t lived in D.C. for decades, and you don’t regularly watch games. But your family still lives there, and that’s where your passion for the game was born. And you’re trying to put this moment in its proper perspective — to give it its due.
You’re getting emails from other joyful former Washingtonians. You’re seeing old friends on Facebook talking about scoring tickets or seeking them. You’re watching old newsreels with pictures of Calvin Coolidge throwing out the first ball at the 1924 World Series.
And you just have to know: What happened to that baseball that Walter Johnson signed and that your buddy’s godfather gave him?
And so you call that friend, who now lives in Western Massachusetts, and you ask him.
He goes into his closet and fumbles around. “While we were talking, I found it,’‘ he reports back, noting that it is still in its plexiglass case. “The problem is, you can’t see his name anymore. It’s just an old baseball now. But Walter Johnson did touch it. So, cool!”
Peter Khoury is an editor on The Times’ Express Team. He finally met his childhood hero, Frank Howard, in 2013.