Phillies_fans_nationalsPhoto via Dan Steinberg

Yes, I know that's not a word. Deal with it.

Just when you thought life couldn’t get any more pathetic and miserable for Nationals fans… well, it does.

Let’s set the scene: Memorial Day in our nation’s capital. Surely the hometown team would draw raucous crowds and pull on our renewed patriotism to work up at least one home field advantage this year, right? Wrong.

Dan Steinberg, who runs the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, chronicled his experience at yesterday's game.

Now, I’m supposed to be neutral and all that, but jeez, when the enemy arrives en masse, you have to kind of close ranks. I imagine it’s not totally unlike all those left-wing hippie pinkos from New York suddenly being cool with patriotism after 9/11.

In fact, I even exchanged my first rude words with a Philly fan in my life, if I’m not mistaken. I went to visit my dear friend Rick Maese in right field, right in the pit of baby-blue-hued PH-t-shirt-gimmicky nonsense, and I had to walk past six Phillies fans to get to Rick’s seats. When I left a few minutes later, one of the fans rolled her eyes at me. “Ahhhh, if you don’t like it, go back to Philly,” were my words, more or less . How I wish she had thrown her beer on me.

 

Baby-blue-hued PH-t-shirt— nice.

It’s important to note that Steinberg is essentially the leading voice in Washington sports (or at least that’s my view from afar). It’s one thing to have a trivial blogger lament the presence of big bad Phillies fans, it’s another to have someone from the Washington Post do it.

Oh hey, look, a trivial blogger – the same one who made that horrid YouTube video about Phillies fans invading D.C. – talked about the number of Phillies fans who are from the greater D.C. area:

Metro should not be packed with Phillies fans as I highly doubt they boarded the Amtrak in Philly and rode it down to Union Station to hop on the green line train to Navy Yard. The Phillies fans from Philly either drive or ride on a chartered bus. The Phillies fans on the Metro are from Maryland, D.C., or Virginia. Bandwagon fans have always annoyed me. When I was young we called them posers, and a better term hasn’t been found until now.

 

No, David, they’re just fans of winning baseball. But hey, perhaps tonight Nats fans can expect a better turnout. It’s Twisted Tasting Tuesday at Nationals Park. Fans 21 and older can purchase a $36 ticket, which includes one can of… you guessed it, Twisted Tea.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Washington Nationals.