BRING ON THE NATIONALS

I don't know if it's by design or coincidence that my physical-hometown team stinks to high heaven in the same season as my birth-hometown team sits atop its division. Whatever the circumstances that make this odd concatenation of events possible, I'm a happy camper.

I've been a booster for the Nationals since day one, and am so happy that they've turned into a head-turning phenomenon out in the NL east. Some (particularly the talking heads who six weeks ago were saying things like: "Oh, look at the Nationals doing well...isn't that cute?") say—now—that this should come as no surprise. They attribute a few things, some of them sound, to the Nationals' success:

• More money pumping through their new franchise in D.C.
• Frank Robinson, a consummate Hall-of-Famer and seasoned strategist, now in his third year with the team, finally getting the support he wants.
• Above-average (but not superheroic) athletes merging to form a tight-ass team gestalt.
• Consistently solid (if not superheroic) pitching.
• On the same note, starters who can regularly pitch well into a game without imploding.
• A decent, happy bullpen.
• Brad Wilkerson and Nick Johnson...the closest the Nationals come to celeb players.

I don't have the grand visionary blowhardiness to tell you why the Nationals are so exciting to watch. They're not colorful, they're not superhuman, but I'll give them this: they grunt their way all the way to a win, no matter how patient they have to be, no matter how much celebrity power is hurled their way, no matter how far in the hole they are late in the game (of their 33 wins, 23 were come-from-behind games...something at which the evil Dodgers and Sith Yankees used to excel). Are the Nationals graceful? Nope. Sharp? Yeah. Explosive? Nah. Surprising in their integrated team approach? You betcha!

So much of the disappointment I've felt with the Giants, who truly and well suck only four seasons after going to the World Series, has verily evaporated, thanks to the joy in baseball the Nationals bring.