It might seem petty, but the schadenfreude that punctuates this celebration is something any sports fan will appreciate:
The Washington Nationals and Bryce Harper both celebrating on Wednesday: it’s his 27th birthday and for the Nats, they relished in the moment of clinching their first-ever trip to the World Series [by winning the National League Championship Series]. This past offseason, Harper sent shockwaves through the league when he left the Nationals and signed a $330 million contract with division-foe Philadelphia Phillies.
(CBS Philly, October 16, 2019)
Mind you, I’m not even a baseball fan. But no Washingtonian worth his salt could fail to celebrate this historic berth. And, truth be told, doing so without throwing shade at Harper would be like celebrating Christmas without throwing shade at Herod. (This seems a blasphemous analogy. If so, I pray my brother, the Bishop, forgives me.)
The point is that nobody gave the Nats a snowball’s chance in Hell of even making the playoffs without Harper. Now the Phillies are probably wondering if their investment in him will ever payoff.
In any event, I hope the Nats complete their improbable season with the even more historic feat of winning the World Series. Because I fear karma might boomerang the gloat they’re hurling at Harper back at them as humble pie. The Nats will face the winner of the American League Championship Series, namely the New York Yankees or the Houston Astros.
That said, no Washingtonian worth his salt could fail to celebrate this WNBA feat:
With an 89-78 win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday in Southeast Washington, the Mystics claimed the franchise’s first title. … The Mystics went through 12 coaches and suffered 11 losing seasons in their first 15 years in the league. … A trade for WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne in 2017 put Washington on the fast track to a championship.
(The Washington Post, October 11, 2019)
I love this game. And, if it strikes you as odd that I prefer the WNBA to the NBA, you can’t be much of a fan of this weblog. Because only this preference explains the gripe I’ve been venting here for years.
I began doing so in “UConn Routs Louisville to Win NCAA (Women’s) Championship,” April 8, 2009:
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Instead of commanding network coverage in primetime, like the men’s championship, the women’s was relegated to cable last night, which guaranteed only a fraction of the viewership. TV executives wonder why they can’t get better ratings for the fledgling women’s professional league — the WNBA. Well, it might have something to do with the way they keep dissing women’s college Basketball in this fashion.
Moreover, what does this disparate coverage say to female college athletes, as well as to young girls, who we encourage to have the same interest in sports as young boys? Frankly, it says that male chauvinism, sexism, and discrimination against women in sports not only still exist but are blithely tolerated.
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That said, it’s noteworthy that the women’s team from Connecticut figured so prominently in that original vent. Because, even though a Washingtonian, I was not rooting for Washington to win this WNBA championship. I was rooting for Connecticut.
As I explained to my niece, with whom I had a bet riding on the outcome, the reason for this apparent betrayal is simple: nationalism trumps localism.
In this case, it just so happens that Jonquel Jones is to the Sun what Elena Delle Donne is to the Mystics. More to the point, Jones hails from my mother country of The Bahamas. And no Bahamian worth his salt could have failed to root for her team to win this championship.
Come to think of it, given the ravages of Hurricane Dorian, I suspect sentimentality had millions rooting for her team. Ah well …