The Washington Nationals have had more time than your average champ to take a bow after their World Series victory last October. Their win in Game Seven over the Astros more than seven months ago stands as the most recent non-exhibition game, and though Major League Baseball continues to bob and weave their way back to play amidst this pandemic, the Nats are still the champs until a new one is crowned. Luckily for baseball fans, Davey Martinez’s crew in Washington certainly made the most of their first World Series victory from a lore perspective. Their turnaround after starting 19-31 has been the most often trumpeted fact from their run to the top, but there are plenty more factoids that add flavor to the Nats’ first championship.
For example, as their Twitter account graciously reminds us, they’re “The Greatest Comeback Team In MLB History” after reversing an in-game deficit five times when facing elimination in the postseason. Then there’s Ryan Zimmerman hitting the first home run in their World Series history 15 years after the Nats made him the first-ever draft pick. Howie Kendrick certainly has a story to share, as does Stephen Strasburg, as does, believe it or not, Gerardo Parra, who bonded the clubhouse around – of all things – a South Korean children’s song.
They also became the first team to win a World Series via four road wins, they took out the Astros just weeks before news broke of the sign-stealing scandal, and they coined multiple slogans along the way, like “Stay In The Fight,” “Bumpy Roads Lead To Beautiful Places,” and “Go 1-0 Every Day.”
But despite the rings, the accolades, and the lore aplenty, there’s at least one thing the Nationals did not accomplish. The 2019 Nats became just the second team in the Wild Card Era to win the World Series without spending a single day in first place (2003 Marlins).
Of course, the introduction of the wild card in 1995 makes this fun fact possible. Since the single wild card was brought into play, we have 25 seasons of wild card history. Seven wild cards survived the gauntlet of the playoffs to win it all: 1997 Marlins, 2002 Angels, 2003 Marlins, 2004 Red Sox, 2011 Cardinals, 2014 Giants, 2019 Nationals (that’s it, right?). While the run in the early aughts gave the wild card some serious juju, the shine had worn off a bit in recent years. Still, each of the past two decades brought a 30% championship rate for wild card entrants.
Meanwhile, World Series champions on the whole over the past 25 years have spent an average of 95.88 games in first. Of course, we’re dealing with a small sample size here and a fairly large spread. A standard deviation of ~54 games means that roughly 95% of our champs should have spent somewhere between 41 and 150 games in first, meaning there really are many ways to skin this cat – especially since more than a quarter of World Series champs fell beyond those bounds (thanks a lot, sample size).
The 2016 Cubs came pretty close to running the table, leading the NL Central for 154 games before capping a season for the ages. They were outdone – White Sox fans will not be surprised to hear – by their crosstown rival. The White Sox were in first place for 161 games during the 2005 season before sweeping the Astros. They did, in fairness, share first place with the Tigers and Twins for (small) portions of the season. The ’02 Angels and ’97 Marlins, meanwhile, barely managed to escape our list by spending 12 and 11 days in first, respectively.
So while the Nationals had a season for the ages in 2019, there’s yet more for this team to accomplish (if/when play resumes for the 2020 season). The Braves would seem to rule the roost, but the Phillies held a share of the NL East lead for 60 days of the 2019 season, and the Mets took the top spot for a cool 14 days. The Marlins’ 105-loss season didn’t share a ton in common with the Nats’ by the end of the year, but this fact they shared: neither managed to lead the division for even a day.
The 90 reds went all 162 and swept the As. I’m not sure if they were the first wire to wire but I know they did it. This was back when season always started in Cincinnati
The 1984 Tigers led from opening day until closing day; swept the Royals in the playoffs; and beat the Padres in 5 games for the World Series title.
@KingTiger
The ’84 Tigers were one of the most dominant teams I’ve ever seen personally. No team was even close to them that year.
Kirk Gibson was one of my favorite opposing hitters to watch. That guy hit bullets over the fence. It might have been in ’84, Gibson hit a HR at Old Comiskey (still the best ballpark I’ve ever watched a game) and the ball was still rising when it hit the upper deck seats. I loved watching him hit.
Let’s not forget one of the most entertaining pitcher to watch ever-
The Bird
Mark Fidrych
Ironically the ’90 Reds started their season on the road in Houston, don’t recall the reason why at the moment, if someone could fill me in that would be great
There was a labor dispute that pushed spring training back to March 20th. It was only the 2nd time ever they didn’t open at home. They were also the first NL team to go wire to wire in a 162 game schedule.
excellent, thank you sir
HI TC,
His name is Dave Martinez not Davey,
Can you fix his first name?
He is sometimes referred to as Davey. Love it when someone calls out a correction and is wrong
It’s Davey.
It was also comical to watch them expose the fraudulent Cardinals in the NLCS.
Good ole Folty, hope the cardinals sent him a gift basket.
just a terribly overrated player. the guy was due for regression – NL version of Bauer
Yeah any baseball fan outside Atlanta and St. Louis knows the Nats Dodgers series was the real NLCS.
And the Cardinals did nothing this off season to improve their offense, but like always, they’ve lucked into a season that won’t happen. Now let’s see if they’re smart enough to dump Molina and get another real bat in the lineup for 2021.
The cruel twist of fate being an Atlanta Braves besides watching my team spectacularly blow that series only to watch the Nationals win the World Series is this: The Braves played great against the Nationals last year. They never lost a series and won five of their six meetings in September.
I’m not going to go as far to say they would’ve beat them in the NLCS because the Braves and us fans don’t deserve to make that claim. It’s just another “close but no cigar” moment for the Atlanta faithful.
Quick correction on your comment: The Nats actually swept a two game series with the Braves their first meeting last year. However, the Braves did play well against the Nats last year overall (8-11), and a Braves-Nats NLCS would definitely have been exciting (though on a side note, the Cardinals actually went 5-2 against the Nats in the regular season prior to being swept by the Nats in the NLCS).
As a DC fan, I’m still stunned and happily now know curses can end. I get this funny feeling that Atlanta’s fortunes can change just as suddenly. Freddy I believe will very soon be getting a WS ring, he is a class act. Find a way to play ball this year, let’s find out.
Sorry, but nobody can take “Greatest Comeback Team In MLB History” away from the ’04 Red Sox. Winning 4 straight, against the defending AL Champs, after losing 19-8 at home in Game 3, that’s something you’ll never see again in our lifetime.
The 2016 Cubs having to win three straight elimination games, two on the road in what is probably the highest point in the greatest year of Cleveland sports history is certainly in the conversation as well.
Just goes to show, any playoff series is a crapshoot
@Commonsenseslapsyou
Exactly. Once the playoffs start, you don’t have to be the best team, you just have to be the hottest team.
The Nats were the better team. Period. Better pitching. Better hitting. Better managing. Better front office. Better announcers. Better media.
Did they have better bat boys and hot dogs, too?
Better grass cutters, better dirt rakers, better chalk personnel, better turnstiles.
Better tickets, better ticket stubs, better bathrooms, better urinals, better urinal cakes…
When Carpenter came to DC I made the comment that I thought he would be a Hall of fame announcer over the course of his career. I was already familiar with his work from the period before DC had a team because I paid the big bucks to get the baseball package. So I had access to all the the broadcasts Nationally and got pretty familiar with the announcers around the country
though there were some I did not like there are no “bad ” announcers, there were certainly a few I did not like. Vin Scully for example puts me to sleep. But he is still a HOF announcer and should be. Announcers like Vin are a different breed who were mentored by announcers who had there roots in the Radio baseball days. The modern announcers by contrast are teams. So when talking about accolades you have to consider both announcers (or all the announcers) in the booth.
This is why I like Carp. he works very well with his partner no matter who he or she is. The pairing of Carp and Santangelo is one of my favorites in sports
I wouldn’t call it a crapshoot. The Twins have been owned by the Yankees, in part because the Twins record was inflated by playing in the same division as 3 rebuilding teams. I’ll grant that being hot at that time is important, but I think the better team wins at least 2/3 of the time. This past WS may be an exception to that, but I’d say only the play-in games could be qualified as crapshoots because then it’s about the best (available) pitcher more than the best team.
I remember being terrified the Indians were going to catch the Sox down the stretch in 2005. Little did I know this was to be the championship team that had the least to sweat.
@EverlastingDave
I know. The Sox went from almost being one of the biggest chokes in MLB history (from 15 games ahead on Aug 1 to 1 1/2 GA on Sept 22 with 10 games to go) to possibly the most dominant playoff run in MLB history (11-1 with 4 straight CG’s).
You could argue their dominant playoff run actually started the last series of the season against Cleveland, where the Sox easily could’ve just laid down after clinching the #1 seed. Yet they swept Cleveland, who would’ve been in the playoffs had they swept the Sox.
The Sox never came remotely close to the magic of ’05 since. The closest thing was the Thome homer in Game 163 against Minny in ’08, only to roll over against TB. They haven’t sniffed the playoffs since.
They also would’ve made it if they swept the Devil Rays instead of losing 2 out of 3 to them as well as the Royals instead of winning 3 out of 4 against them, which would’ve meant that the Red Sox would’ve missed by a game, but they did nothing in the playoffs, anyway.
Let’s hope that magic comes back soon. The team needs growth, particularly from Kopech, Lopez, and Cease, but they have the raw talent to make a run in the near future.
@hyraxwithaflamethrower
I hope so too. This year’s team (assuming they play) reminds me a lot of the 1990 team, though I don’t expect them to do nearly as well with the winning percentage. A ton of youngsters on the team, that like you said needs the growth but has the raw talent to do some serious damage starting next year.
That’s why I’d love for MLB to play a season, even if it’s a farce. These rookies and younger guys that struggled/were injured last year can get that much needed experience so they can hopefully be ready to contend in ’21 and beyond. Even if it’s 50-60 games, that’s still 50-60 games experience (about 10-12 starts for P’s) that the kids can learn and improve upon. At this point, I don’t care what the Sox would do in the W-L column (though above .500 would be nice). I just want that valuable experience and growth from guys like Robert, Eloy, Kopech, Cease, Lopez, etc.
2019 Senators were a team of destiny.
I can’t wait to see how the 2021 Pilots do.
The Robins are gonna win it all in 2022
I’m keeping my eye on the 2023 Cleveland Molly McGuires.
The Nats were eliminated had Trent Grisham not forgotten how to play outfield. Perhaps they should give him a ring as well
also if josh hader didn’t forget how to pitch, perhaps they should give him a ring as well
Dave Roberts on line 1, asking about multiple rings
Focusing in on one player or one play ignores the basic nature and beauty of the game
A good trade deadline can change the dynamics of a team the last two months of a season. Team A could be better than Team B in May, Team B makes a couple moves at the end of July, virtually tossing out whatever happened in May.