Wednesday cannon fodder: unlikely

For those of you who didn’t know, I’m a Washington, D.C. sports guy. So last night was a good one for me. The Nationals completed the sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and are headed to their first World Series since the franchise moved from Montreal. It will be the first Fall Classic held in our nation’s capital since 1933.

But it was not all rainbows and unicorns for the Nats this season. At the end of May, they were 19-31 — that’s 12 games under .500. Only three teams in the last 100 years have made the World Series with a record that dipped that low. The Nats were 3% to make the playoffs, .1% to make the Series. And they pulled it off.

We’re uncharted territory as D.C. sports fans. Until the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018, the city was at the bottom (or top, whichever is worse) of those sports misery indexes you sometimes see. We’re accustomed to spectacular playoff collapses, under-performing teams, and soul-crushing disappointment. I’d reached the point where I wasn’t sure I’d ever see one of my teams win a title. Now, the Caps in ‘18, the Mystics just won the WNBA, and the Nats are headed to the World Series.

I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m conditioned to believe it’s all going to come crashing down at any second. But maybe, just maybe, it won’t. I hope it doesn’t. This “not all my sports loves are bad” thing is nice. The Caps pulled off something everyone thought impossible, and the Nats just managed the near-impossible. I’d like very much to keep having nice things — CC: Arsenal.

So my question for you is what is the most unlikely sports feat pulled off by one of your teams? Also, what “it’s never going to happen” sports thing do you think you might see in your lifetime?

P.S. shout-out to PDB, whose beloved Seattle Mariners are now the only MLB franchise to never appear in a World Series. Stay strong, it’ll come buddy.

P.P.S Still LOL @ the Washington Redskins though.