Washington Nationals Rapid Reaction: Nats Can’t Win If They Score Zero Runs
Oct 3, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Fans cheer before game one of the 2014 NLDS playoff baseball game at Nationals Park between the Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants. Mandatory Credit: H.Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports
Kudos to Nationals Fans
One of the things I like about Nationals fans is that they do not feel compelled to boo former Nats players when they show up at Nationals Park playing for the opposing team.
The fans had a nice round of applause for both Sousa and Asdrubal Cabrera during pre-game introductions. Sousa got more applause and recognition at the beginning of his first at-bat from the Nats crowd.
That’s classy. I hope the Nationals fans don’t get into the bad habit that other team’s fans have of reflexively booing former players when they play for other teams. That behavior just makes fans look stupid. I also don’t understand what message fans are trying to send when they boo former players no matter what the circumstances were of their leaving the team.
Pittsburgh Pirates fans are still booing Adam LaRoche whenever he plays in Pittsburgh. That is really inane because LaRoche was traded by Pirates management in July 2009 to the Boston Red Sox. LaRoche had no control over leaving Pittsburgh, but the Pirates fans still boo him anyway.
We all have seen the ridiculous behavior of the Philadelphia Phillies fans as far as Jayson Werth is concerned. Werth was a free agent and the Phillies didn’t offer him enough money. He got more money signing with the Nationals. I don’t remember the Phillies fans volunteering to reach into their pockets and make up the difference between the amount of money the Phillies management was offering and what Werth could get on the open market to keep Werth in Philadelphia.
Of course they didn’t. They wanted Werth to stay in Philadelphia for less money. All I can say to that is grow up. Baseball players are under no obligation to take less money than they are worth to stay with a team that pays them less just to make the fans happy.