The baseball team that calls D.C. home, the Washington Nationals, is in the middle of their best year since their inaugural season of 2005. Fans have been flocking to Nationals Park to watch Ian Desmond, Roger Bernadina, Michael Morse and Tyler Clippard. The Nationals have taken the District by storm, right? Well, according to a new Harris Interactive poll, the Nationals are third in MLB popularity.

Continue reading

Third from the bottom, that is.

The Nats came in 27th out of 30 teams polled; worse yet, the survey was limited to American audiences only, which disqualifies the last-place Toronto Blue Jays, a Canadian team. The other two teams below the Nationals were the Florida Marlins — a team no one cares about — and the San Diego Padres — a team cursed to play somewhere too beautiful to watch baseball (they're also awful this year).

Despite the fact that more fans may or may not be tuning in to the Nationals, I have a reasonable explanation for why the Nats are so far down. This area is full of transplants from around the country, each with his or her own allegiances. That can translates to ticket sales — fans want to see their favorite team when it comes to town — but not so much for the Nationals. In this way, the team is merely a sidebar. For this Mets fan, only merit my attention 18 times a year, when the two teams play each other. The other 146 games on the Nats' schedule? They may as well be playing cricket.

[via WaPo]