I know it does and that we all express it differently.  If you’ve hung around this long, you’ve passed any imaginable test of fandom.  You’re in this for the long haul and someday it will have been worth it.

Earlier this season Dave at Nats News Network wrote a nice post about surviving another tough year.  Steven at FJB had a similiar one.  Read those.  If wins and losses make or break your day, it’s going to be a painful couple of months.  I refuse to go through that again.  I was cranky, depressed, cynical, mean — last summer was a challenge.  But I learned a lot.

Keep your expectations low.  Look for small victories.  Enjoy the offense.  Meet new baseball friends.  Enjoy a night at the ballpark.  Teach someone about baseball.  Come watch the young kids learn how to pitch.  Learn to laugh at yourself (and your team).  Complain (hey, we all need to complain sometimes, right).

Don’t expect to win, think of that as a bonus.  Don’t expect any magic solutions.  There’s not a lot of relief pitching out there to be had and Strasburg will stay in the minors, apparently.

Decide what the Nationals are worth to you — in terms of your leisure time and hard earned money, and stick within that parameter.  Don’t overdo it… not yet.  There will be a time and a place for 24/7 commitment, but now is probably not that time and if you’re investing that kind of energy, you’ll probably get burned.  I did.  You can still be a fan and scale back a little.

If you are giving 100%, go you.  I can respect that.  I love that.  Just watch your heart.  The Nats are prone to breaking it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 9:42 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.