The Bandwagon Reborn

Note: With the MLB season beginning, here is another offering from my friend, Cayce. This one focuses on the Nats' season opening, 2-0 victory over the Marlins. After a playoff trip last year, Washington could be starting something special this season. I'm a Braves fan, but maybe you'll be catching Nationals fever!

In 1991 -- before I was old enough to remember -- the Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl.

In a testament to how long ago that was, Tony Kornheiser was still a daily columnist for The Washington Post at the time.  Pardon The Interruption would not debut for another decade, and Kornheiser’s radio show would air on AM, not XM, the following year.

The date, though, isn’t what matters.  What does matter is what Kornheiser created that season.  Something known as The Bandwagon.

While the common noun “bandwagon” is thrown around in sports all the time, this capital “T”-capital “B” version was a little different.  It started when the Redskins won their first game of the 1991 season, 45-0, and Kornheiser began worrying about his hotel accommodations for the Super Bowl.  By Week Four, It earned its official title with Kornheiser’s column, “Strike Up the Band(Wagon),” and soon, readers began writing in with suggestions for what to “bring” aboard.  TK’s overzealous weekly predictions even gained enough momentum in D.C. to warrant a line of Skins Bandwagon bumper stickers, T-shirts, and other paraphernalia.

When the Redskins really did make it to the Super Bowl, The Bandwagon took actual shape.  With the Redskins victory, it cemented its place in Washington sports’ lore.

While TK has occasionally threatened to fire up The Bandwagon since then, following a (rare) Redskins winning streak or especially promising preseason, it has never again gotten out of the garage.  Until now, that is.

Here it goes: Strike up the band (wagon).  The Washington Nationals are heading to the World Series.

Of course, there is absolutely nothing edgy about this prediction.  If I truly wanted to be like Kornheiser back in the day, I would have to go out on a limb and pick a team like the Marlins or the White Sox to win it all.  Instead, I’m merely repeating what every baseball publication has written since January: The Nats are hands-down the best franchise in baseball this season.

It seems more ink has been devoted to the Nationals this year than all of their other seasons combined.  The dominant starting rotation, the defense stocked with Gold Glove-caliber players and SportsCenter Top Ten regulars, the chain of impressive hitters, the Hall of Fame manager on his final grand tour -- all have been written about and discussed a thousand times over, and then some.  The fairytale beginning to the season -- something about Bryce-something and some guy, Strasburg, playing well -- only magnified the hype.

With that hype though, comes the only question still yet to be answered: How will the Nats handle such great expectations?  What’s that you say?  Clown question, bro?

I won’t pretend to know the Nats’ psyche-- hopefully that will become more evident as the season progresses -- but (with Aaron’s permission) I plan to keep close tabs on their season.

UVa alum and Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman

While I’ve never been the most hardcore Nats fan, I’m no bandwagoner either.  I still have a copy of The Washington Post from the day it was announced that baseball would be returning to D.C.  I proudly own a Brad Wilkerson jersey from that inaugural season.  

UVa alum Ryan Zimmerman graces my desktop background at work.  Last year, I went to -- or rather, suffered through -- the first-ever playoff game at Nationals Park.  I frequent letteddywin.com, and it’s my secret dream (quite pathetically) to be married with the Racing Presidents in attendance.

Nevertheless, I’ve drifted in and out of Nat fandom over the years, mostly because I was preoccupied with school and other obligations.  This year, however, I’m ready to make a serious commitment to the lovable losers-turned World Series contenders.

This blog post isn’t for dissecting every curly “W” or loss.  Aside from not wanting to write 162 blog posts, I just don’t know enough about baseball to do that.  I do, however, hope to offer a new perspective on the “Natties.”

My new favorite soap opera, if you will, started yesterday with the win on Opening Day.  Based on my prediction -- and everyone else’s -- it should continue through October.

Just as TK wrote after the Skins’ 1-0 start, “I keep telling myself: it’s only Detroit.  It’s only Detroit.  It’s only Detroit,” I keep telling myself: "It’s only April.  It’s only April.  It’s only April."

Nevertheless, I can’t help myself.

It’s time to ignite that Natitude.  All aboard The Bandwagon!

Notebook

If not for a last-minute snafu with tickets, I would have been at Opening Day.  That said, here are ten things -- some serious, some silly -- that I saw and liked from afar.

1.  Bryce Harper’s well-groomed beard

2.  Back-to-back seven-pitch innings for Stephen Strasburg

3.  The seventh inning rundown, preserving Strasburg’s shutout

4.  Davey Johnson’s new Oakleys

5.  Wedding Day at Nats Park

6.  William Taft

7.  Wilson Ramos’ two hits

8.  Denard Span and Bryce Harper chest-bumping after the final out

9.  Tyler Clippard’s ever-growing locks

10.  The largest regular season attendance at Nats Park (45,274)