It Is Good To Be First

#1 At All-Star Break

It is always nice to be in the lead. There are sometimes when it is even more fun. Obviously being number one in your team's division at the end of the season is the goal for every team, but it is also fun to be number one when the league takes the mid-season break in regular play for the All-Star game.

For the Nationals 10th Anniversary Season,(11th season as the Washington Nationals) they are once again first in the NL East division at the All-Star break. 

Now this is a fun time and I am always excited when the team is in first place at this time, however, some years they were in this position but the season took a nosedive. The Nationals Inaugural Season in 2005 is a most excellent example of how things can go south. That first Curly W year for the Franchise didn't finish nearly as well as it had began or was at the midway point. The Nats finished in last place (5th) with a .500 record 81 wins 81 losses. They would spend many years finishing last in the division no matter where they had placed during the All-Star Break.

I remember the excitement I had at the beginning of the 2005 season. Baseball was back in DC for the first time in 33 years. I have always been a Senators fan, but have very little memories of their actual time here. I was 6 in 1971 the last year of the Senators. Most of my early memories of the Senators was what I saw on my baseball cards and whatever memorabilia was sitting around our house. It would be many years before I would watch a major league game since I didn't have a "homie" team anymore. Well all that changed in 2005 with the Nationals "rebirth".

I'm not going to make any bold predictions like saying the Nationals will win the World Series, although that would be very nice, very nice indeed. Provided that their starting pitchers continue to do well and stay healthy and the rest of the team that can stay healthy remains so (some players Like Jason Werth are out for the season with injuries) they should at least make the playoffs. I'd love them to be in first place still or again at that point. There are no guarantees as the Nationals and other teams in their division have shown several times a team in first place at the All-Star break can very well lose all direction and dive down to finish in last place. I hope the Nationals continue with the trend of recent years by staying at the top or near enough to reach the playoffs, not the trend they had 10 years ago of being at the top at the beginning and then finishing just even and at the bottom.