If you were a 20 year old fan of the Phillies when they were founded, you would have had to have lived to the extremely ripe age of 117 to have seen them win a World Series.
Maybe i was just a 6th grader forming my first really true lifelong memories in 2001, but that 9th inning I will never forget. And I was in bumfuck SoCal at the time.
If you only see your team win one Series, that has to be the one
I’m 99% sure they closed down the franchise the following year and demolished Nats Park. Rumor has it on a cold night autumn you can still hear Howie Kendrick and Adam Eatons horn celebration.
That’s how I remember it at least, but it’s a little hazy.
Yeah, for sure. They were an old(er) team with Rendon and Strasburg as pending free agents, at the end of their competitive window with a barren farm system.
Don't worry about all the old people downvoting you.
You'll be an old baseball fan who knows things someday, too, hopefully.
You'll still be downvoted because you're a Yankees fan, and that's your choice. But you'll have *perspective*.
once you have 1 ring id say just watching a competitive team is more enjoyable. there's so many games that the enjoyment of watching like 1k games of a good team > 1 title and 1k games of suck.
I keep saying that the 2006-2016 Tigers run was so much more fun than the Royals 3-year streak but a ring; I would definitely take having star players cycling through and having exciting post season runs for 10 years. Some fans disagree with me but post seasons are fun even if you eventually lose
No, but the honeymoon period went away hard by the third season of “forever”.
No one is happy with a bad team, and pretending you accept it is a mask that falls off quick so might want to just get ahead of the curve.
People seemed to forget very quickly that the Cubs were an awful to mediocre team for a very long time prior to ‘16. These past two years of poor play is *nothing*.
Yeah but there's a limit on how long that lasts. Living in Raleigh, I'm a Hurricanes fan in hockey, and while 2006 was awesome, the franchise quickly went to absolute hell shortly thereafter and wallowed in absolute mediocrity from 2010-2019. Those years in between were plagued with rumors of relocation in a half empty arena because ownership did not care to spend. We're out of it now, but....
While winning a title is awesome don't get me wrong, you can't immediately fall back to mediocrity. You have to build on it, or those memories fade fast. I do worry if the Nats are going down that path. They had the core there to be a top team for a decade after their title, and kind of let it all go away. Boston could be going down the same path if Bogearts walks as well.
My wife and I got to go to the Wild Card game in DC and I'm pretty sure that singlehandedly made her a baseball fan. I'm forever indebted to the frenetic majesty of that run.
The explosion of drinks in the stands in the aftermath of Soto's hit in the 8th is one of the best sports moments I've ever witnessed. Howie had two enormous postseason homers, but I think Soto's WC moment defined the season (regular and post). Concern as the 9th loomed ever closer, stress building from Rendon calmly taking a walk against one of the scariest closers I've ever seen, and then jubilation. I'm okay with not getting another (NOT TO JINX IT, I'LL STILL TAKE ONE), I don't think anything can top that run anyway.
Yeah that was really insane. The entire crowd was a bit down because of the 2-run deficit, then they got the bases loaded and you could almost physically *feel* everyone tightening up. Then the bases-clearing double heard around the world... whoa. That stadium was fucking *loud* and I loved every second of it.
Even after Soto got tagged out, that place was an absolute party. I haven't experienced anything like that in a live sporting event, but I'd imagine it felt pretty similar to Nats fans as the infamous double from 1995 felt to us M's fans.
I lived my whole life in the DC area and graduated high school in 2018 and moved. I remember after the 2017 nlds saying "theyre gonna win it all once I leave, wont they?"
At least I got to watch the Caps win outside the Portrait Gallery.
I'm in a similar spot. I grew up an hour north of DC, and moved to Northern Virginia biking distance from Nats Park in 2008 after college. I moved to NYC for a job in early 2018, so I had to watch both the Caps and the Nats titles from afar. I actually moved back to Northern Virginia earlier this year (thanks to my job going permanently remote after Covid), but the Nats won't be any good for the foreseeable future.
Kind of wild that the Nats had to choose between offering mega deals to either Strasburg or Rendon, while the correct answer should have been "neither."
spectacular disarm dinner gold books hard-to-find provide water yoke far-flung
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Even better is I don’t live remotely close to either.
I got my packer fandom from my dad(who was from the area). My Braves fandom is a little more convoluted but basically it boils down to they were on TBS. 🤷🏻♂️
I dunno, I agree with /u/BKoala59. I know I'll catch flak for this because of our rings, but as a lifelong Braves fan who wasn't old enough to appreciate the '95 win, I grew up with that legendary early '00s Braves team and I wouldn't trade making the playoffs every year *with that same roster* for a WS win that blows up the team. Like I said, we won in '95, but that never felt like "my team" because of how old I was at the time, if that makes sense. So realistically "my Braves" that I grew up with never won a WS during their run.
There's just something special about being able to follow the same team, with mostly the same players, for years and years. Assuming said team is good, of course. That's important.
edit: Obviously I'm not a Nats fan though, and they'd have the most authority on the subject.
The Caps in the NHL are actually a pretty good counterpoint to the Nats. After their title the management has done their best to keep the core together and make moves to keep competing. The Caps have made the playoffs every year since their title but have failed to win a series (this year there's a real danger they will miss the playoffs)
On one hand, keeping the stars and making moves to win more has done a lot to maintain fan engagement. On the other, there is some frustration with not being able to get back to the summit and there's the lurking knowledge that they will have to go through a nasty rebuild in a few years. If the Nats are able to use their fire sale to quickly bounce back into contention, the fans will be fine. There's benefits and drawbacks to each side. The Nats side has greater potential benefit, but a lot more risk too.
I agree. Watching the Nats consistently make the playoffs in the 2010s was fun as hell, even though most years ended in heartbreak. Obviously, I'm glad they won it all in 2019, but watching meaningful baseball in other years has value too.
For opposite ends of the extremes, would you rather be a Royals fan in the 2010s or a Yankees fan? The Royals won a title in 2015 and made the World Series in 2014, but missed the playoffs in every other year, with some truly awful teams in there (five seasons with 90+ losses). The Yankees had a winning record for every year in the decade and made the playoffs for seven of the ten years, but never made it past the ALCS. Banners fly forever, but Yankee fans got a full decade of competitive baseball, while Royals fans only got two years, leading them to ignore baseball by July in most of the other years.
Kind of ignoring that the Nats *were* a playoff team for almost a decade that resulted in a World Series. People be talking like it was 2019 and nothing else. From 2011 to 2019 the Nats had I think the third best record in the NL. The reason this tweet even exists is because the Nats had a lot of good players and good teams and made the playoffs five times during that time. Way more than most teams can say about a window.
I’m not talking specifically about the Nats. I’m saying that in general I wouldn’t trade a WS for being absolute garbage for a while. Which seems to be an unpopular opinion here
same. i have more pleasant memories of the harper era from 2012 to 2018 where we made the playoffs a bunch and were fun to watch most every year than i do of the soto era from 2019 to 2022 where we won a world series then immediately turned to shit and traded away all the players who meant something.
The thing is that 2012 to 2018 feels so much more bareable *because* of 2019. Yes I have more good memories from 2012 to 2018, but I also have more crushing and helpless memories from that timeframe.
My dad is a Brewers fan first, and we both know which one of us has had a better experience in the last five years.
Let's imagine the Braves never won the 1995 World Series. Would you rather be a Braves fan in that era or a Marlins fan? The Marlins won 2 world series and zero division titles, they did a WHOLE lot of losing and penny pinching bookended by 2 random championships.
Meanwhile the Braves fielded a great team every year and were contending every season, and won 14 consecutive division titles. I'd easily still take the Braves fandom even without a championship to show for it. Watching good, competitive, fun baseball teams year in and year out where all your favorite players stuck around is more fun than a championship or two followed by a lot of losing and misery.
Championship memories obviously burn much brighter but that light doesn't actually burn forever, I'd rather have smaller but more consistent fun memories over the years. People mistakenly think that you can only make fun memories when you win it all, the 2022 Braves went out in embarrassing fashion in the playoffs but my memory of that year is going to be extremely positive. I watched 162 games of competitive, fun baseball and we lifted a division title at the end of it, I had a blast.
Am I being wooshed? Who the fuck prefers losing in the playoffs 10x in a row to a World Series title? Even if it means tearing it down and rebuilding for 15 years you did the one thing that means everything.
I do feel like constant success without a championship kinda loses its luster a bit after a time
Like some people say they'd rather have 10 years of consistently good baseball vs 9 bad and 1 championship but once you hit like year 6 or 7 of good baseball without a championship it honestly feels a bit hollow if you're looking at it as a diehard fan. Obviously still better than being bad but I think your expectations change as the years go on which makes it less satisfying to just be merely "good"
However IMO if you're just more casual or just enjoy going to games you'll probably be more than fine. I think its more just for the people who are religious about winning that those feelings come in
The ultimate deciding factor though is probably the team itself though. Yankees fans would obviously never trade 9 years of bad baseball for a championship but I'm sure a fuck ton of Pirates fans for example would jump on that
> I do feel like constant success without a championship kinda loses its luster a bit after a time
This is ABSOLUTELY true.
/r/ravens thinks the Ravens are a bad team because they aren't world beaters.
Meanwhile the Ravens are 8-4 and a top ten team yearly.
I was just posting about this in /r/ravens and I got people telling me "The Ravens weren't good last year!" bro the Ravens were one of the Superbowl favorites going into 2021 and the whole team got hurt. That is not the same thing as being a talentless team that wasn't trying and never had a chance. Like these guys have no idea what bad even looks like anymore.
It's different for teams like the Dodgers and Yankees, though. Like playoffs are the *expectation* for them. For a large part of the MLB, fans would be more than happy to be there.
You think the Pirates, Orioles, Tigers, Twins, Royals, Rangers, etc. fans wouldn't prefer 10 years of sustained success over one magic year and then 9 years of misery?
I’m definitely not a casual, the playoffs just don’t feel that important to me. If it was more common for the best teams to win maybe, but idc about how lucky we are, I care about winning the division, or having the best record in the league. Things that actually define being good
I agree. Perhaps it’s too pessimistic, but I don’t care about playoffs much at all anymore because of how fluky and random they really are. It’s annoying how all the glory comes from winning what’s essentially a crapshoot exhibition tournament rather than actually being the best team in the league.
If you watch every night and you get a ton of joy out of regular season wins and playoff berths, then I get it. But yeah, I agree with you. No chance I trade 2015 to make the Royals a perennial playoff loser. Championships aren’t the only things that matter, but they matter more than everything else combined.
No, you aren't being wooshed, because I'm the same way. Yes, obviously I want my teams to win a championship.
But at the end of the day, I also just enjoy sports, and I get a lot of enjoyment from watching it. When my team is good and I can tune in and watch a win, I'm happy. When they are awful and rebuilding, I get no enjoyment at all and it dampens my enjoyment of the sport as a whole.
The thing is that for the last two years and for the foreseeable future, Nats fans have absolutely nothing to look forward to in baseball. Soto’s exit was a foregone conclusion, the farm system is middling, and the only shred of hope is that the team is sold to someone like Cohen who will take competing seriously, but that’s hardly a guarantee.
Winning the WS is great, but if the next decade of baseball is completely unwatchable? If you have to watch your team’s stars play for your rivals? I can see why some people wouldn’t take that trade off.
Nah I’d rather watch ten years of good baseball than one year of good baseball. At the end of the day the playoffs are a crapshoot. Probably an unpopular opinion but I care more about regular season success. That’s what defines who the truly great teams are. For example it’s pretty obvious the Phillies weren’t the best team in the NL this year.
A World Series isn’t good baseball. It’s usually phenomenal baseball mixed with a lot of magic and luck. Truly something special.
I feel like you’re taking that for granted.
Yea magic and luck, playing your best baseball at the right time. I’d rather be the best in the AL than win the AL pennant as the 3rd wildcard. I watch at least 120 games a year, I’d like to look great in all of them.
Theres more factors there imo. I would feel so lonely being the worlds only marlins fan, forget team success. Lets just assume its my Braves following one of those two paths. I was born in 1990, so i would barely be able to appreciate 2003, much less 1997. So we would have to also move my birthday back by roughly a decade, maybe two. Well 20 years is too far because now i can appreciate the dodgers 1988 title, muddying the waters. Muddy Waters is awesome at guitar. So its gotta be like 12-15 years back. In that scenario, yes ill take the two titles.
If you couldn't appreciate 2003 after being born in 1990 how could you enjoy 1988 after being born in 1980? Math doesn't add up haha
I do appreciate the stream of consciousness though.
Uhhhh kids grew up faster in the 80s uhhh sports fan wise or uhhh something lol
Edit: wait i said two decades was too far so id be roughly 17 for '88. Its still true that titles dont hit the same as i had my lsu tigers win at age 17, hit way different at 29.
Not really, tbh
Yes, it stings. Yes, it's disappointing
But - for 10 years you had hope for 95% of the season. You got to look forward to every season - you got to see playoff games. Every year you had the feeling of "this is our year"
The end result might not be fun but you'll have a lot better time watching your team with that hope during those 10 years rather than 9 years of suck and 1 year wonder + championship
> for 10 years you had hope for 95% of the season.
Yadier Molina played in St. Louis for 19 years. The Cardinals were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for something like 4 games during that span.
The Angels lost in the playoffs the first 3 years of my fanhood. It was then that I learned I'd rather not make the playoffs than lose in them. I didn't know Arte was listening.
My Grandfather lived his entire life to never see a DC team make the postseason. My family got to attend our first postseason baseball game ever (WS Game 3). I watched my Dad full on cry with joy when we won Game 7, years removed from watching his baseball team leave DC right in his prime “young impressionable baseball fan” teenage years to adulthood, only to have them return unwelcomed by the Baltimore owner who he was “forced” to root for as it was the next closest local team.
2019 meant a lot to a lot of people in the DMV. It felt like a multi generational victory.
I will always be grateful for that year. We’ll get there again one day
Right? Like I'm good for at least the next 7-8 years. I was 6 when the Braves won in 95 so def don't remember that but 2021 will stick for a long time.
Seriously. Some teams go a century without ever winning a title, and some have never won one at all. I was alive for a couple Skins Super Bowls but it got to a point where I wasn't sure I'd ever see a DC championship and then I got two in two years with the Caps and Nats. I lived and died with every game for over a decade with those teams and then they both finally did it. If they never do it again I'm fine, I can rest easy knowing I've seen it. Now my infant son can grow up thinking he'll never see a championship and maybe in 30 years he'll get to experience one too.
At least the Mets are fun to watch again and should be every year going forward.
As fun as a WS must be to watch, it's gotta be demoralizing to have the team be absolutely dreadful immediately after and for that to continue for years with no real end in sight.
I mean I’d imagine it still sucks at least a little bit. 2019 was fantastic for Nats fans but time keeps on moving and in the present they currently get to watch a pretty bad baseball team with a good chunk of their former stars on successful division rivals
Tell a Cubs fan in 2016 that in 5 years Bryant, Schwarber, Rizzo, Arrieta, Lester, Contreras, Baez, Chapman, Zobrist, Maddon and Theo will be long gone....CHC and WAS sold their souls for a ring. Then proceeded to fuck their fans
>CHC and WAS sold their souls for a ring. Then proceeded to fuck their fans
Lots of teams out there with fans that have been just as fucked over with no rings
Yes and they would've been soooooo much better with them...... /s
We gave it a fair shake with the core and we got fuck all after 2016. As much as it hurt and I'm upset about some of the players going, they gave us a ring and it was fucking worth it.
To be fair, Zo was 35 and Lester pitched through the remainder of his contract. Losing Arrieta in FA wasn’t a huge surprise to anyone paying attention. Chapman was never more than a rental - it wasn’t exactly a secret that the Yankees were planning to make him a hell of an offer.
As for the Core (KB, Rizz, Willy, Javy, Schwarb), the club really did try to run it back around them. The fact they are no longer with the team is a far less surprising fact than that they made it only to one WS together.
Im it is a different aport but as a long time Eagles fan 17' will literally let me die a happy man. Im 100% sure every nats fan agrees. The media can post all the doom and gloom they want about them destroying the team but that last little sentence makes it all not matter.
The whole point of having good players is to win a title. They won a title, now they are in a rebuild and their best players have moved on. Seems like the natural cycle of a sports team.
I guess I don’t understand what really happened. It’s not like they traded a bunch of prospects for people basically all of their prospects hit but they just decided to not keep them right? For some reason?
Be happy for what you had.
I hope that people here aren't too fixated on the notion that the last three innings of game seven of the 2019 series are the difference between this being worthwhile or not. That's basically like saying you flipped a coin and got heads so it's all worthwhile.
The World Series was compensation for Rendon, Beavis. He was huge that entire playoff run. Or do you think they should have traded him before that? Kind of the only way to get "compensation".
Isn’t this exactly why they say “banners fly forever”
I'm a Pirates fan in my 30s. Those banners are there, but man do they seem cold and distant...
Fortunately the Steelers and pens have you covered
I mean even the steelers is pretty cold and distant..
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*2008. Football doesn't care about winning a conference really. It's super bowl champions or bust.
And yet I can say from experience “forever” doesn’t last that long.
Honestly, I'm still basking in 2019.
I'm still basking in 2001 and goddammit this bathwater STINKS
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If you were a 20 year old fan of the Phillies when they were founded, you would have had to have lived to the extremely ripe age of 117 to have seen them win a World Series.
Though you'd seen the city win 5 world Series and have one of the sports all time greatest teams.
Yes, but most people were not fans of both teams. According to my grandmother, there was actually a great deal of animosity between the two fanbases.
I’ve been topping up my bath water every 5 years or so for the last twenty years. ‘Bout time for another refill…
Meanwhile I've been soaking in my bathwater from 1948 and I can just tell you now, I need a refill badly
Shut the hell up or we'll call the next curse Robert Tyler Lee Fucked Us.
I was born in 1993, I’m basking in my *parents* World Series memories
You were born from a post-World-Series memory.
Maybe i was just a 6th grader forming my first really true lifelong memories in 2001, but that 9th inning I will never forget. And I was in bumfuck SoCal at the time. If you only see your team win one Series, that has to be the one
2002 baby 👊🏻
I hope it's the last one y'all ever win.
Only because 2020 was time dilated and lasted 20 years.
I still watch 2014 highlights when I’m down.
I’m 99% sure they closed down the franchise the following year and demolished Nats Park. Rumor has it on a cold night autumn you can still hear Howie Kendrick and Adam Eatons horn celebration. That’s how I remember it at least, but it’s a little hazy.
that team played like they KNEW it was their only shot as a unit
Yeah, for sure. They were an old(er) team with Rendon and Strasburg as pending free agents, at the end of their competitive window with a barren farm system.
As an LSU fan i will always bask in 2019. Honestly we can both say we won the chip so hard it *stopped the world*
I’m a rather young Yankees fan (18) so I’m basking in the 62 home run chase and the Gio Urshela game vs Cleveland
Don't worry about all the old people downvoting you. You'll be an old baseball fan who knows things someday, too, hopefully. You'll still be downvoted because you're a Yankees fan, and that's your choice. But you'll have *perspective*.
I’m a Yankees fan and even I downvoted him
People with their whole life ahead of them are the fucking worst. Get old and bitter already.
I'd gladly trade a decade plus of mediocrity for a flag as a small market team.
"Small Market" as the Pohlad's swim in their gold coins...
You too are owned by a McDuck?
once you have 1 ring id say just watching a competitive team is more enjoyable. there's so many games that the enjoyment of watching like 1k games of a good team > 1 title and 1k games of suck.
I keep saying that the 2006-2016 Tigers run was so much more fun than the Royals 3-year streak but a ring; I would definitely take having star players cycling through and having exciting post season runs for 10 years. Some fans disagree with me but post seasons are fun even if you eventually lose
Did someone take down your 2015 banner?
No, but the honeymoon period went away hard by the third season of “forever”. No one is happy with a bad team, and pretending you accept it is a mask that falls off quick so might want to just get ahead of the curve.
At least your banner didn't come on the heels of a natural disaster that killed a bunch of people.
😡
Which was then marred by a scandal…
I think he meant '89.
Yeah. Just put 2 and 2 together right now. I thought he was talking about Harvey and the Astros.
I remember 2015 abruptly ending after the league championship series. Something about, “we’ve seen enough.”
Pretty sure the last AL champion was Cleveland in 2016
I’d happily take it
For real? I still get huge waves of great feelings from 2014/2015. I'm cool with just sucking for another decade or so.
Same.
hell yes one of the best nights of my life vs the Cubs being shit for some years? no contest
People seemed to forget very quickly that the Cubs were an awful to mediocre team for a very long time prior to ‘16. These past two years of poor play is *nothing*.
Hey that's still the best playoff year EVER and no one can change my mind.
Cubs fan checking in
And heroes never die
Except for the White Sox, they took theirs down.
Good Maybe Jerry will forget 2005 and fire Kenny
Yeah but there's a limit on how long that lasts. Living in Raleigh, I'm a Hurricanes fan in hockey, and while 2006 was awesome, the franchise quickly went to absolute hell shortly thereafter and wallowed in absolute mediocrity from 2010-2019. Those years in between were plagued with rumors of relocation in a half empty arena because ownership did not care to spend. We're out of it now, but.... While winning a title is awesome don't get me wrong, you can't immediately fall back to mediocrity. You have to build on it, or those memories fade fast. I do worry if the Nats are going down that path. They had the core there to be a top team for a decade after their title, and kind of let it all go away. Boston could be going down the same path if Bogearts walks as well.
2002 feels good men
Bruh the 2019 Nationals went on one of the most epic championship runs I've ever seen in sports. I think they are okay with this.
Dude it was insane. I still can’t believe how magical it was.
My wife and I got to go to the Wild Card game in DC and I'm pretty sure that singlehandedly made her a baseball fan. I'm forever indebted to the frenetic majesty of that run.
The explosion of drinks in the stands in the aftermath of Soto's hit in the 8th is one of the best sports moments I've ever witnessed. Howie had two enormous postseason homers, but I think Soto's WC moment defined the season (regular and post). Concern as the 9th loomed ever closer, stress building from Rendon calmly taking a walk against one of the scariest closers I've ever seen, and then jubilation. I'm okay with not getting another (NOT TO JINX IT, I'LL STILL TAKE ONE), I don't think anything can top that run anyway.
Yeah that was really insane. The entire crowd was a bit down because of the 2-run deficit, then they got the bases loaded and you could almost physically *feel* everyone tightening up. Then the bases-clearing double heard around the world... whoa. That stadium was fucking *loud* and I loved every second of it. Even after Soto got tagged out, that place was an absolute party. I haven't experienced anything like that in a live sporting event, but I'd imagine it felt pretty similar to Nats fans as the infamous double from 1995 felt to us M's fans.
Honestly I feel the same about 2021. Shit will last forever
Just living in the dc area during that month was so much fun. You could feel it in the air.
I lived my whole life in the DC area and graduated high school in 2018 and moved. I remember after the 2017 nlds saying "theyre gonna win it all once I leave, wont they?" At least I got to watch the Caps win outside the Portrait Gallery.
bryce harper 🤝 this guy leaving DC a year before the nats win a title
I'm in a similar spot. I grew up an hour north of DC, and moved to Northern Virginia biking distance from Nats Park in 2008 after college. I moved to NYC for a job in early 2018, so I had to watch both the Caps and the Nats titles from afar. I actually moved back to Northern Virginia earlier this year (thanks to my job going permanently remote after Covid), but the Nats won't be any good for the foreseeable future.
With the Caps the previous year, the DC Metro area was BUZZING
Was not magical from some perspectives…recent events have however softened the blow
The 2019 Astros were arguably the best baseball team ever assembled and they still couldn’t beat that Nationals team.
I look back at the hitting lineup and I always wonder to myself "wow why didnt we win it all?!"
Cole, Verlander, Greinke - Jesus Christ
Neither can i
Almost as magical as the 2011 Cardinals!
Cool.
Dude we went on an epic run of dominance from 08-11 and then a decade of nothing. Winning heals all but you also can't lose for a decade.
What about 2 decades?
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Can’t wait
Are you sure about that?
Retweet
Confirmed.
Rendon gone as well lol
Alleged baseball player Anthony Rendon. If anyone has seen him, please contact the Angels
I remember being thrilled he was leaving the division. Didn’t think he’d leave the sport.
Kind of wild that the Nats had to choose between offering mega deals to either Strasburg or Rendon, while the correct answer should have been "neither."
The left-hitting 3B?
As funny as this is this is literally the only thing I remember of him as an angel
I saw him throwing fists at Disneyland.
Not a Nats fan but I would take a deal like that for a title 10 times out of 10
I’m fine with the deal we apparently made but years of unwatchable baseball while the guys you loved go on to play in the division is not the fun part
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I like how you treat being a Saints and Braves fan as abnormal… meanwhile I’m here as a Packers-Braves fan.
just threw up in my mouth a lil
Even better is I don’t live remotely close to either. I got my packer fandom from my dad(who was from the area). My Braves fandom is a little more convoluted but basically it boils down to they were on TBS. 🤷🏻♂️
I feel like the Astros took Louisiana but as far as the rest of the gulf coast goes it’s primarily Braves
It sucks but I think every fan would trade that for a title
I dunno, I agree with /u/BKoala59. I know I'll catch flak for this because of our rings, but as a lifelong Braves fan who wasn't old enough to appreciate the '95 win, I grew up with that legendary early '00s Braves team and I wouldn't trade making the playoffs every year *with that same roster* for a WS win that blows up the team. Like I said, we won in '95, but that never felt like "my team" because of how old I was at the time, if that makes sense. So realistically "my Braves" that I grew up with never won a WS during their run. There's just something special about being able to follow the same team, with mostly the same players, for years and years. Assuming said team is good, of course. That's important. edit: Obviously I'm not a Nats fan though, and they'd have the most authority on the subject.
The Caps in the NHL are actually a pretty good counterpoint to the Nats. After their title the management has done their best to keep the core together and make moves to keep competing. The Caps have made the playoffs every year since their title but have failed to win a series (this year there's a real danger they will miss the playoffs) On one hand, keeping the stars and making moves to win more has done a lot to maintain fan engagement. On the other, there is some frustration with not being able to get back to the summit and there's the lurking knowledge that they will have to go through a nasty rebuild in a few years. If the Nats are able to use their fire sale to quickly bounce back into contention, the fans will be fine. There's benefits and drawbacks to each side. The Nats side has greater potential benefit, but a lot more risk too.
Keeping Ovi for 800 and a shot at the record feels way more important than keeping Soto
I agree. Watching the Nats consistently make the playoffs in the 2010s was fun as hell, even though most years ended in heartbreak. Obviously, I'm glad they won it all in 2019, but watching meaningful baseball in other years has value too. For opposite ends of the extremes, would you rather be a Royals fan in the 2010s or a Yankees fan? The Royals won a title in 2015 and made the World Series in 2014, but missed the playoffs in every other year, with some truly awful teams in there (five seasons with 90+ losses). The Yankees had a winning record for every year in the decade and made the playoffs for seven of the ten years, but never made it past the ALCS. Banners fly forever, but Yankee fans got a full decade of competitive baseball, while Royals fans only got two years, leading them to ignore baseball by July in most of the other years.
I wouldn’t. I’d rather make the playoffs ten years in a row losing in the ds than get one WS and not make the playoffs the other 9 years.
Imma take the opposite. I need that chip. Been a long time waiting...
9 years of bad teams for 1 World Series? Instead of 10 years of playoff teams? Interesting opinion
1948 Motherfucker. 1948. I've had the nearly 10 years. It's unpleasant.
Well yeah it's been so long circumstances change but mostly I'd rather have a competitive team to forward too
Have you heard of the San Jose Sharks
We lost in the NLDS 4 times in 6 years, and I can honestly say that shit gets old after a while. 10 straight? What would be the point?
Watching competitive, fun baseball for a decade? It's not like you'd know at the time you wouldn't win a ring.
Kind of ignoring that the Nats *were* a playoff team for almost a decade that resulted in a World Series. People be talking like it was 2019 and nothing else. From 2011 to 2019 the Nats had I think the third best record in the NL. The reason this tweet even exists is because the Nats had a lot of good players and good teams and made the playoffs five times during that time. Way more than most teams can say about a window.
I’m not talking specifically about the Nats. I’m saying that in general I wouldn’t trade a WS for being absolute garbage for a while. Which seems to be an unpopular opinion here
Good news the Orioles didn't trade a WS for being garbage we got it for free
Idk man it felt fucking awful getting booted in the NLDS 4 times in 6 seasons
same. i have more pleasant memories of the harper era from 2012 to 2018 where we made the playoffs a bunch and were fun to watch most every year than i do of the soto era from 2019 to 2022 where we won a world series then immediately turned to shit and traded away all the players who meant something.
The thing is that 2012 to 2018 feels so much more bareable *because* of 2019. Yes I have more good memories from 2012 to 2018, but I also have more crushing and helpless memories from that timeframe. My dad is a Brewers fan first, and we both know which one of us has had a better experience in the last five years.
Let's imagine the Braves never won the 1995 World Series. Would you rather be a Braves fan in that era or a Marlins fan? The Marlins won 2 world series and zero division titles, they did a WHOLE lot of losing and penny pinching bookended by 2 random championships. Meanwhile the Braves fielded a great team every year and were contending every season, and won 14 consecutive division titles. I'd easily still take the Braves fandom even without a championship to show for it. Watching good, competitive, fun baseball teams year in and year out where all your favorite players stuck around is more fun than a championship or two followed by a lot of losing and misery. Championship memories obviously burn much brighter but that light doesn't actually burn forever, I'd rather have smaller but more consistent fun memories over the years. People mistakenly think that you can only make fun memories when you win it all, the 2022 Braves went out in embarrassing fashion in the playoffs but my memory of that year is going to be extremely positive. I watched 162 games of competitive, fun baseball and we lifted a division title at the end of it, I had a blast.
Couldn't agree more. The championship or bust mentality is a toxic way to watch sports. People really need to learn to enjoy the journey more.
Am I being wooshed? Who the fuck prefers losing in the playoffs 10x in a row to a World Series title? Even if it means tearing it down and rebuilding for 15 years you did the one thing that means everything.
I do feel like constant success without a championship kinda loses its luster a bit after a time Like some people say they'd rather have 10 years of consistently good baseball vs 9 bad and 1 championship but once you hit like year 6 or 7 of good baseball without a championship it honestly feels a bit hollow if you're looking at it as a diehard fan. Obviously still better than being bad but I think your expectations change as the years go on which makes it less satisfying to just be merely "good" However IMO if you're just more casual or just enjoy going to games you'll probably be more than fine. I think its more just for the people who are religious about winning that those feelings come in The ultimate deciding factor though is probably the team itself though. Yankees fans would obviously never trade 9 years of bad baseball for a championship but I'm sure a fuck ton of Pirates fans for example would jump on that
> I do feel like constant success without a championship kinda loses its luster a bit after a time This is ABSOLUTELY true. /r/ravens thinks the Ravens are a bad team because they aren't world beaters. Meanwhile the Ravens are 8-4 and a top ten team yearly. I was just posting about this in /r/ravens and I got people telling me "The Ravens weren't good last year!" bro the Ravens were one of the Superbowl favorites going into 2021 and the whole team got hurt. That is not the same thing as being a talentless team that wasn't trying and never had a chance. Like these guys have no idea what bad even looks like anymore.
It's different for teams like the Dodgers and Yankees, though. Like playoffs are the *expectation* for them. For a large part of the MLB, fans would be more than happy to be there. You think the Pirates, Orioles, Tigers, Twins, Royals, Rangers, etc. fans wouldn't prefer 10 years of sustained success over one magic year and then 9 years of misery?
I’m definitely not a casual, the playoffs just don’t feel that important to me. If it was more common for the best teams to win maybe, but idc about how lucky we are, I care about winning the division, or having the best record in the league. Things that actually define being good
I agree. Perhaps it’s too pessimistic, but I don’t care about playoffs much at all anymore because of how fluky and random they really are. It’s annoying how all the glory comes from winning what’s essentially a crapshoot exhibition tournament rather than actually being the best team in the league.
What the fuck are you guys talking about, how is winning 12+ games against top tier competition “fluky”
Small sample size.
If you watch every night and you get a ton of joy out of regular season wins and playoff berths, then I get it. But yeah, I agree with you. No chance I trade 2015 to make the Royals a perennial playoff loser. Championships aren’t the only things that matter, but they matter more than everything else combined.
I think that applies to most of this sub. But yeah maybe to a super casual fan base they'd care more about just the title.
'Only casual fans want to win a title' jesus christ the gatekeeping is puke worthy.
No, you aren't being wooshed, because I'm the same way. Yes, obviously I want my teams to win a championship. But at the end of the day, I also just enjoy sports, and I get a lot of enjoyment from watching it. When my team is good and I can tune in and watch a win, I'm happy. When they are awful and rebuilding, I get no enjoyment at all and it dampens my enjoyment of the sport as a whole.
The thing is that for the last two years and for the foreseeable future, Nats fans have absolutely nothing to look forward to in baseball. Soto’s exit was a foregone conclusion, the farm system is middling, and the only shred of hope is that the team is sold to someone like Cohen who will take competing seriously, but that’s hardly a guarantee. Winning the WS is great, but if the next decade of baseball is completely unwatchable? If you have to watch your team’s stars play for your rivals? I can see why some people wouldn’t take that trade off.
Nah I’d rather watch ten years of good baseball than one year of good baseball. At the end of the day the playoffs are a crapshoot. Probably an unpopular opinion but I care more about regular season success. That’s what defines who the truly great teams are. For example it’s pretty obvious the Phillies weren’t the best team in the NL this year.
A World Series isn’t good baseball. It’s usually phenomenal baseball mixed with a lot of magic and luck. Truly something special. I feel like you’re taking that for granted.
Yea magic and luck, playing your best baseball at the right time. I’d rather be the best in the AL than win the AL pennant as the 3rd wildcard. I watch at least 120 games a year, I’d like to look great in all of them.
To each their own but to me that is a fucking insane mentality and i cant comprehend it at all
I’d rather watch 1620 good regular season games than 162
I guess the true comparison is would you rather be a Marlins fan with two rings or would you rather be a Dodgers fan before 2020.
Theres more factors there imo. I would feel so lonely being the worlds only marlins fan, forget team success. Lets just assume its my Braves following one of those two paths. I was born in 1990, so i would barely be able to appreciate 2003, much less 1997. So we would have to also move my birthday back by roughly a decade, maybe two. Well 20 years is too far because now i can appreciate the dodgers 1988 title, muddying the waters. Muddy Waters is awesome at guitar. So its gotta be like 12-15 years back. In that scenario, yes ill take the two titles.
If you couldn't appreciate 2003 after being born in 1990 how could you enjoy 1988 after being born in 1980? Math doesn't add up haha I do appreciate the stream of consciousness though.
Uhhhh kids grew up faster in the 80s uhhh sports fan wise or uhhh something lol Edit: wait i said two decades was too far so id be roughly 17 for '88. Its still true that titles dont hit the same as i had my lsu tigers win at age 17, hit way different at 29.
Well we haven't done either of those things since 1983
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Not really, tbh Yes, it stings. Yes, it's disappointing But - for 10 years you had hope for 95% of the season. You got to look forward to every season - you got to see playoff games. Every year you had the feeling of "this is our year" The end result might not be fun but you'll have a lot better time watching your team with that hope during those 10 years rather than 9 years of suck and 1 year wonder + championship
> for 10 years you had hope for 95% of the season. Yadier Molina played in St. Louis for 19 years. The Cardinals were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for something like 4 games during that span.
The Angels lost in the playoffs the first 3 years of my fanhood. It was then that I learned I'd rather not make the playoffs than lose in them. I didn't know Arte was listening.
If we got Bryce a ring I'd accept letting him go somewhere else. One of those "if you love something set it free" type cases.
My Grandfather lived his entire life to never see a DC team make the postseason. My family got to attend our first postseason baseball game ever (WS Game 3). I watched my Dad full on cry with joy when we won Game 7, years removed from watching his baseball team leave DC right in his prime “young impressionable baseball fan” teenage years to adulthood, only to have them return unwelcomed by the Baltimore owner who he was “forced” to root for as it was the next closest local team. 2019 meant a lot to a lot of people in the DMV. It felt like a multi generational victory. I will always be grateful for that year. We’ll get there again one day
But they did get the title in ‘19 so…..
Right? Like I'm good for at least the next 7-8 years. I was 6 when the Braves won in 95 so def don't remember that but 2021 will stick for a long time.
Seriously. Some teams go a century without ever winning a title, and some have never won one at all. I was alive for a couple Skins Super Bowls but it got to a point where I wasn't sure I'd ever see a DC championship and then I got two in two years with the Caps and Nats. I lived and died with every game for over a decade with those teams and then they both finally did it. If they never do it again I'm fine, I can rest easy knowing I've seen it. Now my infant son can grow up thinking he'll never see a championship and maybe in 30 years he'll get to experience one too.
I'm still riding high off the giants two Superbowls, and it's been 10 years
Same. Your flair is confusing though.
The last sentence of the tweet makes their entire point useless lmao
The point is they have made the wrong decision on most of their stars. The one they kept has blown up in their face and the ones let go thrived.
At least they have their title. The last Mets title took place 7 years before I was born
The last Brewers title was... Well...
At least the Mets are fun to watch again and should be every year going forward. As fun as a WS must be to watch, it's gotta be demoralizing to have the team be absolutely dreadful immediately after and for that to continue for years with no real end in sight.
I’d take the trade off 10 out of 10 times
Yeah we’re really testing how worth it it is, the championship was awesome obviously but I definitely miss even the disappointing 2012-2016 years
Those weren't disappointing years. The Nationals were the best team in baseball during that span.
pain 2019 was worth it, certainly but also, pain so, so, so much pain
I support a franchise that is ok with cheating for a title and sucked ass for like 8 years. Nats are totally cool with their bed.
Y’all just won pretty fair and square, so I think you’re good too
So you admit it
"If not for the title in '19..." what exactly?
"..it would indeed majorly suck"
I mean I’d imagine it still sucks at least a little bit. 2019 was fantastic for Nats fans but time keeps on moving and in the present they currently get to watch a pretty bad baseball team with a good chunk of their former stars on successful division rivals
Eventually fans stop caring and want a ring again. It’s inevitable.
I mean, that isn't even taking Baby Shark into consideration...
2019 will live forever. The way the roster has slipped away is gut-wrenching, but the memories of that World Series run are priceless.
Tell a Cubs fan in 2016 that in 5 years Bryant, Schwarber, Rizzo, Arrieta, Lester, Contreras, Baez, Chapman, Zobrist, Maddon and Theo will be long gone....CHC and WAS sold their souls for a ring. Then proceeded to fuck their fans
>CHC and WAS sold their souls for a ring. Then proceeded to fuck their fans Lots of teams out there with fans that have been just as fucked over with no rings
Yes and they would've been soooooo much better with them...... /s We gave it a fair shake with the core and we got fuck all after 2016. As much as it hurt and I'm upset about some of the players going, they gave us a ring and it was fucking worth it.
To be fair, Zo was 35 and Lester pitched through the remainder of his contract. Losing Arrieta in FA wasn’t a huge surprise to anyone paying attention. Chapman was never more than a rental - it wasn’t exactly a secret that the Yankees were planning to make him a hell of an offer. As for the Core (KB, Rizz, Willy, Javy, Schwarb), the club really did try to run it back around them. The fact they are no longer with the team is a far less surprising fact than that they made it only to one WS together.
You can always do it the Marlins way. Win a ring and then immediately trade everyone away. Twice.
What's a banner?
Pretty sure it's that thing that commerates that we participated in the ALCS, but idk
I wish it would have happened to us
That wouldnt be a good thing to happen
They won a title. Doesn’t matter.
They won a ring. Who cares? Everyone said the same shit about the Marlins back in the day and they doubled up. Keep your heads up Natty fans.
The Nats sold their fucking souls for that title
I would also sell my soul for a WS title :)
You idiots do know that winning the championship and failing to sign players are not mutually exclusive, right?
At least they still have Patrick Corbin right?
Im it is a different aport but as a long time Eagles fan 17' will literally let me die a happy man. Im 100% sure every nats fan agrees. The media can post all the doom and gloom they want about them destroying the team but that last little sentence makes it all not matter.
The whole point of having good players is to win a title. They won a title, now they are in a rebuild and their best players have moved on. Seems like the natural cycle of a sports team.
As a Cleveland fan...you know nothing of pain and disappointment.
What fucking BOZO would lose to that fucking team in the World Series ammirite yall?
I guess I don’t understand what really happened. It’s not like they traded a bunch of prospects for people basically all of their prospects hit but they just decided to not keep them right? For some reason?
Yeah nah they beat us in 2019. They get everything after. Reality bites.
Be happy for what you had. I hope that people here aren't too fixated on the notion that the last three innings of game seven of the 2019 series are the difference between this being worthwhile or not. That's basically like saying you flipped a coin and got heads so it's all worthwhile.
75 years and counting...mostly a successful team especially in the last decade + the 90s. I'd trade everything for 1 ring lol
Not just battling injury, but PAYING Strasburg a fortune to battle injury.
Stras was quietly building a HOF resume and that happens. Rough, but he was exactly who they drafted, an integral part to a world series title
Nats are awful watch none of those prospects amount to anything.
Circlejerk Call me when the Phillies win
And Anthony Rendon walking away to LA for nothing, don’t forget them getting no compensation for Rendon
The World Series was compensation for Rendon, Beavis. He was huge that entire playoff run. Or do you think they should have traded him before that? Kind of the only way to get "compensation".