Celebrating the World Series Champion Washington Nationals!

Anna & Theresa at the National Parade

There is not a lot of positive news that comes out of Washington, DC these days, but one of the best things to happen is the big World Series victory of the Washington Nationals.  For those of you that are baseball fans, you know this was not a typical World Series.  The Nats were at the bottom of the National League in May.  They made a steady climb throughout the season to win a wildcard slot in the playoffs all the way to the championship.  There was no shortage of drama throughout with big finishes and agonizing defeats.  Washington fans were riveted throughout the playoffs (there were a lot of tired people at the office and school during the week from late night games).

Anna's new principal is a super fan and brought her enthusiasm to the students.  She proudly hung a Nats flag in the school office and each time the team won a play-off series, she had a "Rock the Red" day for students to wear their Nats shirts - or anything red.  She and the staff also used the team to talk about important life virtues, including perseverance, believing in yourself, and teamwork.  The principal even secured one of the local news stations to stop by the day after the World Series to video the Rock the Red dance party at the school.  See video here

The Virginia Fagellas are casual baseball fans.  We are more likely to go to a minor league game than a major league one downtown.  The Potomac Nationals minor league game we attended this year happened to have Ryan Zimmerman playing as was recovering from an injury.  We tuned into the games and enjoyed the ride.  Anna watched a few innings each night and celebrated at school.  Theresa decided it was to stressful to watch the entire game and opted to check scores before going to bed and enjoyed reading all of the articles and analysis afterwards.  Joe became a regular watcher of the games during the World Series, which was quite a turn of events considering he was unaware of the Nats playoff run...until Anna & Theresa filled him in.  Anna & Theresa enjoyed attending the victory parade downtown and seeing all of the players and excited fans.

Davey Martinez & the World Series trophy

There were so many great lessons from this season that involved more than the game of baseball.  The theme of family, which many of the players emphasized.  Whether it was pitcher Daniel Hudson missing a playoff game to be with his wife for the birth of his daughter or Gerardo Parro selecting Baby Shark as his walk-up music because his small children like it (let's face it - that takes some guts to pick that music), you could see the importance the team placed on family.  The power of immigrants was on display with key players from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela....and the stories of players learning to speak both Spanish and English.  There were the celebrations in the dugout following big plays in support for each other that was clearly on display.  This team clearly seemed to be enjoying themselves and each other.  Most importantly, there was the power of grit and perseverance. (Check out this article about the clubhouse here).

Thanks to the Washington Nationals for a great season!  We could not have asked for more!