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Off-the-Field Recap: Playoffs!

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Ohhh boy. Oh man, oh man, oh man. Oh boy. Oh man. Hooooo boy. The postseason is upon us, y’all. Friday night, Max Scherzer will duel Clayton Kershaw and the backs of our seats will be neglected. As the christening of the postseason became closer and closer through the week, the Nats prepared on the field while they stirred up excitement off it. Now that the NLDS is brushing against our fingertips, it’s time to recap.

1. Dradam (Adam and Drake) LaRoche have been announced as the first pitch throwers for Game One. Adam was a year removed from calling DC his home in 2015 when he stepped into his dad’s (Dave LaRoche) pitching legacy by throwing a perfect inning. The pair is no Katie Ledecky, but there is a surprise guest being teased for Game Two that could be. There’s also been murmurs of hope that Wilson Ramos will do the honor, but so far, the Nats have kept it under wraps. As long as Adam breaks out his eephus a la his dad, I won’t riot.

2. In Bryce Harper’s latest ad, he’s in a laundromat wearing his full uniform, as he’s almost definitely done before, spitting on the thought of data limits for T Mobile. Harper helps some less charismatic dummy who’s not watching the NLDS fold green underwear, just like every Nats fan has ever dreamed. Harper’s game has seen a drop off from his historic 2015, so his commercial game is here in its stead until he inevitably hits a walk off bomb in the playoffs, as the ad foreshadows.

3. For as long as the media has chided Nats fans for diluted passion and leaving games early, the Metro has been on the decline. Train delays and closed tracks have become as much a part of the DC baseball experience as a Max Scherzer Strikeout Stalk. As a result, the Metro is holding to its 10pm closing time so that proper maintenance take place, despite staying open longer in the past to accommodate Nats fans. This took Scherzer, who has probably never been stuck in a tunnel on the red line for 45 minutes, by surprise on 106.7 The Fan. Fan’s commonly cite the Metro’s shortcomings for leaving games early (a practice Bryce Harper called “brutal” in 2015). Charlie Slowes is encouraging fans to be loud and stay long. If possible, follow rule number two: Never Metro.


4. On Friday night, Dusty Baker and Dave Roberts will showdown in the first postseason matchup between two black managers in baseball history. Whether the Nats find a way to manufacture runs against Kershaw or the Dodgers squeak a run or two past Scherzer, Baker will mop the press conference room floor with Roberts. Baker has been throwing around MVP caliber quotes all season long. This week, he dug deep and delivered some of his best during press conferences surrounding team workouts. Through these press conferences we learned that Baker wanted to be a Dodger because they were known for having good bodies. We heard that Baker dubbed the Nationals a “baby-making team” upon the arrival of Chris Heisey’s new baby. We discovered that Baker knows that Roberts is in the way of him dropping Vin Scully-level sound bites at the World Series.


5. The Colorado Rockies Twitter guy had himself a Saturday night, tweeting at anyone who complained about DJ LeMahieu sitting Game 162 to edge out Daniel Murphy for the batting title. Baseball feelings are a crazy thing, you know. They’ll drive a person to spend 12 hours tweeting the same statistics. Baseball feelings are like adderall, but instead of focus, it’s the need to show all of the baseballverse how they’re wrong. Kept out of the lineup for weeks with an injury, Murphy was given a shot to defend his title with one pinch hit at bat that ended in a fly ball to right field. He didn’t seem too butt hurt about it.


6. When the world lost Jose Fernandez, a daughter lost a dad, baseball lost a light, a mother lost a son, a grandmother lost a grandson, friends lost an electric smile, and the Miami Marlins lost their teammate. After Miami finished up their first homestand–filled with pain, mourning, and strength–without Fernandez, the team made its way to DC to close their season. There they were greeted by a message left by the Arizona Diamondbacks, who had previously inhabited the visitor’s clubhouse. The Nationals then stepped in to honor Fernandez and do what they could to bare support to their division-mates.


The Nations and the Marlins ended the 2016 season with hat tips from across the diamond.


It’s always just baseball and it’s never just baseball.
7. Anthony Rendon’s afro — it’s good. On Sunday, Rendon broke out the only thing bigger than his smile and his bat: his hair. As long as he doesn’t get really into the 60’s and no one ever sees him again, the afro should make its postseason debut.


8. As a fan, there’s no way of knowing for sure if your team is in postseason form before you get there. But, postseason twitter form, (which is just as important) doesn’t abide by such a rule. Trea Turner and Mark Melancon’s twittering are showing just enough bright spots to be excited for what fire postseason tweets are to come. Plus, Trea twitter snark.


9. The week of prep for postseason baseball is serious stuff. Players hone in on training, but most importantly, rally towels must be red and good luck charms are to be collected. The Nationals checked these off their list as they collected good luck charms from Nats fans for a chance at different prizes.


10. Valerie Camillo confirmed that white rally towels (which can make picking up the baseball hard for players and also resembles a flag of surrender) are no more, and red towels will be handed out instead. Control the controllables, amiright?


11. Tanner Roark‘s birthday was Wednesday, but with a baseball season scheduled as it is, his surprise party was on Wednesday. Roark is probably one to love a good surprise and appreciate his friend’s coming together. Kayla Varner and Bryce Harper were the only two to post pictures from the event, but what’s important here are, dare I say it, the Instagram captions. Harper says he hasn’t “played on a team that has this much fun in a long time,” and Varner hashtags “#natsfam,” and just look at how happy Roark is.

This team is tight knit, and they have fun. Postseason baseball is fun. Just thank god it’s in October so you can disguise your nerve-driven fidgeting as shivering from the cool air.

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Mina Dunn

I watched the Orioles until I was ten when I realized that (most) fans at RFK didn’t shout letters during the National Anthem. I’m a Public Relations and Economics major at VCU, the associate managing editor at TNB, and a sports columnist for a student newspaper. Be my friend on Twitter dot com: @maddc8.

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