With a 7-17 record, the 2009 Washington Nationals are off to what may be considered a sloooow start (let’s remain positive, people, no need to chase after Manny Acta with pitchforks … yet). The team may have not have an obvious ace on the mound, or a batting superstar who will singlehandedly save this current season by belting out runs each game, but they do have a boost coming from a very unlikely place: a stuffed animal—a lobster, to be specific. This plush has attended four games now, and the team has sported a 3-1 record for those games attended. Consider this evidence:
April 16, 2009
The lobster was picked by a partial-season-ticket holder around 3 p.m. as part of a free swag sweep on a trade show floor. He was thrown, haphazardly, into a complimentary bag with Post-It Notes, postcards, brochures, pens and candy. His acquisition was merely a blip on the Swag Gatherer’s radar, but what happened next may become the stuffing of legends.
That evening, playing the Phillies, the Nats were up by three runs, which were scored in the first inning. Up until this point in the new season, the team had posted a staggering 0-6 record, so it was not looking good for our hometown team. The Swag Gatherer (S.G.) came to the game late, in time for the main event, i.e., the President’s Race in the middle of the fourth inning. Soon after, the S.G. started distributing the loot to her other season-ticket-holder friends. The lobster finally saw the stadium floodlights, and the game began to really heat up for the Washington Nationals.
The Phillies battled back within one run by the fifth inning, but the Nats added more to the score, with one run in the seventh and four in the eighth. The Washington team finally was able to hold onto that lead; the first curly W was logged in the books.
As the game closed, the lobster was dubbed the Lucky Lobster by the season-ticket holders, but with only one win under his shell, a trend was not yet established.
April 19, 2009
A breezy Sunday afternoon marked the lobster’s second game. The mighty Marlins came to D.C. and quickly fell behind by two runs in the first. The Marlins scored one run in the third, but the Nats added one for insurance in the fifth. Florida struck again with one run scored in the sixth, but the Nats held onto their lead through the seventh.
As it started to get really cold in the seventh inning, and with the Nationals ahead by one, the season-ticket holders left the stadium. When they just had walked out the gate, lobster in totebag, the group heard the crowd groan as the tying run was hit out of the park. The Nats ended up losing that game, 7 to 4.
April 21, 2009
Unlike the previous two games the now so-called Rally Lobster attended, the Atlanta Braves struck first in the first, leaving the inning up three to nothin’. The Nats scored in the second and again with three runs in the sixth, and the team held on to that narrow lead to take the game, 4 to 3.
May 2, 2009
The Nationals record now included five wins, when the rally lobster made it to his third game. An extremely dominant Shairon Martis no-hit the Cardinals until the fifth inning, and the Nationals got four runs in the bottom. The only mistake allowed by Martis was a lead off home run in the seventh, and the Nats added two more in the eighth to close it out.
Boiling point
As this trend reaches that pitch that a lobster makes when you drop it into the pot, some may argue that the true reason those games were won were Martis and bolstered by Ryan Zimmerman’s 21-game hitting streak, Adam Dunn and Nick Johnson. Sure, this writer acknowledges that those very well paid professional ball players contributed, but there may be some assist from the No. 11 on the team (No. 10 being the fans, of course): the Rally Lobster.
