October 30, 2019. Houston. – Washington Nationals win the World Series over the Houston Astros.!! The underdog team never gave up trying and won 6-2.
While every news outlet will be reporting statistics and play-by-play analysis for the next several months, here, we will look at not the numbers and RBIs but at the heart of the team.
The players were interviewed and their responses were consistent. Pitcher, Max Scherzer, replied to Fox sportscaster, Tom Pertucci’s question of how he feels, “I’m part of the greatest team 2019. Everybody gave their all. Stay tough, trust your instincts, lay it on the line. Just compete. Give it whatever you’ve got. …Energy, camaraderie. Everyone believes in each other.”
Perducci asked Third baseman, Anthony Rendon, who hit the homerun that turned the game, “Five times facing elimination, trailing in all five games, and you win all five. What is it about this team?” Rendon replied, “We stuck together. When we had nothing left to lose, when people had written us off, we were facing elimination games and when people didn’t think we should have been there in the first place – we kept on fighting and we came out on top.”
“The dream came true,” said founding principle owner of the Nationals, 94- year-old Ted Lerner. “We brought it for the fans,” he proclaimed.
Dave Martinez, Nationals manager replied to Pertucci’s comment, “This never dies, does it?” “Never. Never ever. They’re a bunch of relentless resilient bunch of guys. They love to play the game and they play the game every day. Tonight we were down but they never thought they were out. This is a testament to these guys. They fought all year long, and guess what? We won. We won the fight! The biggest thing for us is never quit. We know that.”
Ryan Zimmerman, first baseman and first draft pick when Nationals moved from Montreal to Washington, said, “What a group of guys. The way this game went is the way the season went. We never gave up, kept fighting. What a story, what a fun year, man! Baseball, gosh, is the greatest sport in the world, man….What a great thing for this city and the fans. Thank you guys so much! I hope DC is ready for us to come home.”
Sportscaster, Kevin Burkhardt, summarized the Nationals’ season, “ Pull together in the same direction, you get something done.”
Baseball Commissioner, Rob Manfred announced that, “The Willie Mayes Most Valuable Player is pitcher, Stephen Strasburg.”
Stasburg’s reply to the interviewer, “To be able to do it with this group of guys is something special We didn’t quit. I love every one of these guys. I took it one pitch at a time. It was a big team win. We took it one day at a time one game at a time.”
Brian Sweeney, U.S. Vice President of Chevrolet awarded Strasburg the keys to the latest model (going into production soon) red Corvette Stingray.
The Nationals are the “First team ever to win 4 World Series road games,” proclaimed Burkhardt.
A DC fan in Houston said, “This win gives us something to cheer about, something to celebrate about, we fought long and hard!”
“It’s a unity thing. When you play as a team – look what happens,” said Burkhardt.
The great news is more than the fact that the underdogs won four out of seven games, it is about a group of athletes and trainers giving their best all the time, working and trusting as a team, staying focused, and never, never giving up.
Thank you Washington Nationals!

