The Chicago Cubs won the World Series, which is pretty cool for them and baseball, but the end of game seven also meant the end to another season.
For me, there was the usual disappointment that the Nationals got knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, but all in all it was a really fun year at the ballpark. I also continued my streak of seeing the Nats go essentially .500 in games I attended.
They would have been an even 12-12 if I only went to games that were part of our ticket plan, but I had to add in another in which Noah Syndergaard did some Noah Syndergaarding for the Mets in September.
Shockingly, the Nats would have been best served by me attending only games started by Gio Gonzalez, as they went 3-0. On the flipside, I should have stayed home when Max Scherzer (1-4) or A.J. Cole (0-4) pitched.
We saw Bryce Harper hit a grand slam in April that was his 100th career home run. It smacked against the video ribbon on the front of the second deck in right field and broke a section that was supposed to displaying the R in Good Humor.
Bryce’s grand slam broke the video board pic.twitter.com/HIytCO6QkM— Chris Hannas (@cjhannas) April 14, 2016
For some reason, each of the games in our plan that started in the afternoon ended up being some of the longest ones all season, either because of rain delays or extra innings. So much for getting home early. We also managed to go to a 12-inning game and a 14-inning game in the span of 16 days.
The Golden Knights jumping into the stadium was the coolest non-baseball thing to happen.
Getting to see three playoff games was pretty great, even if they lost two of them. Jose Lobaton’s three-run homer to save the Nats in game two was probably the baseball highlight of the season.
Apparel-wise, it was a rough year for the Anthony Rendon jersey, which went 2-5. The Bryce Harper jersey was 3-3, while the Ryan Zimmerman jersey went 1-1 and the Stephen Strasburg shersey 1-0. The most successful shirt by far was my blue Nats Nike dri-fit shirt, which is a staple for the hottest summer games and went 4-1. If I had compiled this data in early October, I would have made sure it was a part of my playoff gear.
There’s always next year.