EZ’S WEEK IN SPORTS

NATS!!!

Postseason baseball is the best kind of baseball. Especially when a time that you have personally rooted for over years finally, finally, finally breaks through. When I was a kid there was this game called backyard baseball. The premise that what you played computer baseball--in a backyard. One of the best players was Vladimir Guerrero who played for the Montreal Expos. I dug the Uni, I dug the name, I really liked how he would hit home runs and win me games against my friends. So, a couple of years later when my Dad got me a baseball game for the Xbox I went looking to play as the Expos. They were nowhere to be found. My kind old--but not that old--dad told me that they had become the Washington Nationals. That was it, that was the seed of my fandom. For years and years they stank. My dad would get really mad when I would beat the Red Sox with them. He’s competitive like me and does not like to lose period--especially when he has the better team on paper. For most of my childhood, the Nats never had the better team on paper. At least, not until years of consecutive good drafts and smart pickups transformed the team.

 It started with Stephen Strasburg but really took off with drafting Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon. Those draft picks along with the free agent signing of Jayson Werth, among other moves, helped transform the Nationals from struggling new ball club into perennial contenders. Bryce Harper won Rookie of the Year. Strasburg threw fireballs. Bryce Harper won MVP. Max Scherzer won the Cy Young. The team was winning over 100 games a season. It was genuinely exciting! That was, until the postseason rolled around. Four straight division titles. Four straight divisional round exits. It was like I was Bryce Harper and the Nationals were George Papelbon. My fandom was being choked out. 

Rooting for them did not get any easier last year when Harper’s free agency loomed over the season like a really bad Monday. It was inevitable and it was not going to be fun. And it was not fun. Harper left the team for a division rival and had a very lukewarm goodbye to the city he had called home for nine years. The general bad vibe even went into the beginning of this season. The Nationals were near the bottom of their division as late as May despite flashed from Juan Soto--Harper’s replacement. But then, something that was missing all of Harper’s time finally happened. The team came together, the bullpen did not fall apart, and the team went on a massive run culminating in a wild card berth. 

This postseason the team has done the unthinkable. It beat the two time defending National League Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA. They hit back to back home runs off living legend Clayton Kershaw. Howie Kendrick’s grand slam off Rich Hill in the ninth inning of the winner take all game five seemed to exercise a decade’s worth of frustrations with one swing. Beating the Dodgers was something no one expected. Statistically speaking, the Dodgers just had one of the best regular seasons of all time. But that’s baseball. Months of work can be undone in a weekend. Almost as surprising as that was the way the Championship series went. Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer each had no hitters through six innings in the first two games. The Nats won 8-2 in game three. Then followed that up with seven runs in the first inning of game four. Juan Soto caught the pop up that sent the Nationals to their first world series in franchise history. Bryce Harper was not there. But it did not matter. The team and the fans who stuck with it still were. 

Win or lose. This was fun. 

EZ Teezy

So I’m in this Pick em Pool. Each week I pick the NFL teams that are going to win that weekend. If I pick the most winners then I win some sweet, sweet cash. This Monday I went into the primetime game between the Lions and the Packers tied for the lead with another guy. He had the Pack and I went against the grain. I picked the snakebitten Detroit Lions. Inside I knew better but there is also this self destructive part of me that likes taking risks. Like the time I bought a used Honda from the used car salesman, not the used car dealership. Picking the Lions worked out a lot like buying the Honda. At first it seemed to work out, then things started going wrong. Wrong call after wrong call after dropped pass after dropped pass I knew that the Football Gods were working their magic against me. It won’t be the last time. But, for now I am going to hold on to the hope of one day getting that money. 

NBA SZN 

It’s that time again! Hoops are swooshing. Dunks are slamming. And you ain’t ever seen parity like this in the NBA. For the first time in over a decade, there is not a prohibitive favorite in the NBA. You could tell me that the Clippers, Lakers, Nuggets, Jazz, 76ers, Bucks, or Blazers won the title next year and I would not be surprised. I would be surprised if the Celtics or the Spurs won but not as much if you told me that Mikal Bridges won Finals MVP and that the Suns were the NBA champions next summer. That shiz would be crazy surprising. I surprised myself just writing that. Anyways, this time of year is magical. It’s a time of promise and new beginnings before teams begin to settle into mediocrity. Enjoy it.