The parade got underway at 2 p.m. and was to end at Pennsylvania Avenue and Third Street NW, where players and others were to address the crowd and “Baby Shark,” the team’s anthem, was going to be the song of the day.
With champagne corks popping and the bubbly stuff being sprayed around, the buses rolled, carrying the Commissioner’s Trophy along with players and their families and team officials.
Earlier, as players prepared to hop on the bus, fans who’d waited at the staging area crowded in for autographs, with reliever Sean Doolittle mobbed.
For fans who can’t get close enough to the stage, the Nationals will have eight jumbo screens along Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues NW, between Fourth and Ninth Sts. NW. By 1 p.m., the sidewalk and street were almost completely full from the stage on 3rd Street to the next block on 4th Street.
The start of the parade route at 15th St and Constitution was packed an hour before the start of the parade, with the large green space in front of the African American history museum proving to be prime territory for families with young children.
2:26 p.m.: Max Scherzer shows his shark teeth
Scherzer and his daughter, Brooke, grooved (if that’s what one does) to “Baby Shark” and he told Channel 4″s Sherree Burruss that there’d be no long-tern problems with the neck issues he battled through during the Series.
2:18 p.m.: Archives Metro closed
Just before the parade began, the Nationals Archives Metro Station entrances were closed due to overcrowding. Consider using Metro Center, Gallery Place or Union Station as an alternate; all are less than a 10-minute walk from the parade route.
2:18 p.m.: Rendon feeling the love
“MVP” chants for Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon started at the beginning of the parade route and continued as his bus rolled down Constitution Avenue. Fans wore t-shirts or carried signs urging the Nationals to sign Rendon to a long-term deal.
1:55 p.m.: Poppin’ corks
1:52 p.m.: The car lover has logged on
1:42 p.m.: A welcoming place
There was no shame for some new Nats fans.
Tamara Cole, 53, sat proudly at the front of the parade route, blaring oldies from a bright red speaker plugged into her electric wheelchair.
She used to live in San Francisco, where she said her spine was damaged in an assault four years ago. She was looking for a new place to live this year when she heard President Trump, who she supports, invite people to the capital for the Fourth of July.
“I haven’t left,” she said. “I feel comfortable here. I don’t feel unsafe.”She said she had thrown away her Giants gear and embraced the Nats, reinventing herself in her newly adopted city.
“I tried to leave everything behind and start anew,” she said.
1:34 p.m.: It’s getting crowded
Forty-five minutes before the parade was set to begin, the block between the main stage and 4th Street was a mass of red-clad fans. The two video boards flanking the stage were displaying player interviews and highlight packages.
“I can’t see anything!” a kid shouted from atop his dad’s shoulders. In fairness, there wasn’t much to see. The crowd, which smelled of cigar smoke and marijuana and anticipation, cheered as two Budweiser trucks rolled past.
1:31 p.m.: Challenge time?
Scherzer said he and Kevin Long were on the streets for the Caps parade.
Asked if he will out-bender Ovechkin and company: “We’ll try.”
— Todd Dybas (@Todd_Dybas) October 31, 2019
Another Capital who has some experience on days like these, was taking in the scene and liked what he saw.
The Commissioner’s Trophy, which lost a few of its pennants in the celebration Wednesday night, arrived along with players who were preparing to board buses about 40 minutes before the parade was to begin.
Mike Rizzo kisses the trophy and everyone is going crazy at the end of the bus line. Big “Let’s go Nats!” chant and the engine starts. pic.twitter.com/zyRuOSHevB
— Jesse Dougherty (@dougherty_jesse) November 2, 2019
1:11 p.m.: The ultimate Nats playlist
Players and team officials are expected to be introduced with individualized walk-up songs at the rally following the parade. A sample of the music expected to be used:
Ted Lerner: “You’ve Gotta Have Heart,” Damn Yankees
Dave Martinez: “Dancing in the Moonlight,” King Harvest
Stephen Strasburg: “Seven Nation Army,” The White Stripes
Howie Kendrick: “Dey Know,” Shawty Lo
Adam Eaton: “No Diggity,” Blackstreet
Max Scherzer “Still D.R.E.,” Dr. Dre
Trea Turner: “Look Ahead,” Future
Anthony Rendon: “Water,” TedashiiJ
Juan Soto: “Esa Muchacha,” Los Hermanos Rosario
Sean Doolittle: “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” Metallica
Gerado Parra: “Baby Shark”
Ryan Zimmerman: “Whatever You Like,” T.I.
1:09 p.m.: “A once-in-a-lifetime experience”
A couple from Harpers Ferry, Kathy Simpson and Dave Hoffman, didn’t decide to attend the parade until late Friday night. They were planning to visit family in West Virginia, but couldn’t pass up on making the trip to Washington.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Simpson said. “How many times do you get a chance to see something like this?”
So Simpson and Hoffman woke early Saturday morning and drove to Shady Grove metro station and trained into the city. They have not been able to attend very many games recently, but they spent the last few days reminiscing about their experiences as Nationals fans. Hoffman remembered his first game at RFK Stadium.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “[Owner Ted] Lerner did exactly what he said he was going to do when he brought the team here, to build the team from the ground up.”
On the night the Nationals clinched the World Series, the couple celebrated and hopped online and bought more than $300 worth of championship merchandise.
“Christmas gifts,” said Simpson, who was ready to wave her championship pennant on Constitution Avenue on Saturday.
“I was shocked,” she said of the World Series won. “I was hoping it was going to happen.”
1:03 p.m.: After years of waiting, relief
Jihad Abdus-Salaam, 71, said he’d been waiting almost 50 years to see the World Series trophy come down Constitution Avenue.
He’d grown up playing everything from Little League to semi-pro in Martinsville, Va. before moving to DC in 1970. He only had time to catch a few Senators games before the team left.
“Oh man, we hated it,” he said of losing the team. “That was real funky.”
Abdus-Salaam said he attended as many as 25 Nats games per year, rarely missing an opening day. The bike he stood astride was festooned with a Nats pennant on the back, like a child’s three-wheeler. His red Nats jacket was self-patched with tape.
He shook off questions about the depth of DC sports fandom.
“DC has always been a great sports town,” he said. “We just didn’t have any winners. Now ‘DC’ stands for ‘District of Champs.’”
“We’ve got the Nats, the Caps, The Mystics,” he continued. “Maybe our soccer team will come through, because the ‘skins aren’t going nowhere.”
12:57 p.m.: Age is just a number
For those who think the franchise is too young to have true diehards: meet Jake Erskin.
The 27-year-old insurance salesman grew up in Germantown, Md. reluctantly rooting for the Orioles. He was thrilled when baseball arrived in the District.
“I can tell you the whole starting lineup from that year,” said Erskin, who now lives in DuPont Circle.
A superstitious fan,he has a carefully curated set of routines that he’s choreographed to boost the team’s chances of winning. During one game he attended earlier this season, he had Whiteclaw, the spiked seltzer that’s popular with the younger set, before the first pitch. And when the Nationals won the Wild Card game, he had Sea Quench Ale during the game. So for every playoff game it was the same: unwashed Juan Soto jersey, White Claw before the game, and Sea Quench during the game, listen to “Calma,” the Pedro Capò song that became part of the soundtrack for the series when a locker room video of players dancing to the song went viral. He’s played the music video so many times on YouTube that the website has begun suggested Spanish-language videos.
Also, the drawers in his dresser must be closed.
Saturday, he arrived at the steps of the National Archives to take in the parade. In his hand: a White Claw.
To those who write off all Nats fans, Erskin says: “They’re just jealous. People need to hate on something.”
12:40 p.m.: On Instagram, everyone can hear “Baby Shark”
12:37 p.m.: Taking stock on a lifetime of fandom
Joe Shifflett, 63, said he attended his first game when he was about 3 years old, back when the Senators played at Griffith Park.
“I’m about as longtime as you can get,” he said as he waited for his family on a wooden bench outside the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
His outfit, like his memory, was layered with DC baseball. Beneath his Senators cap, he wore a blue Senators jacket over the white, pin-striped jersey his childhood team wore in the musical “Damn Yankees.”
”His only regret about this historic season was that the Nats didn’t get a chance to make the musical come true.
Shifflett, a renovation contractor, now lives in north Philadelphia but came down this morning on Amtrak. He catches the team when he can, including Game 3 of the World Series.He said his baseball-crazed father would drop him and some of 11 siblings off at DC Stadium — now RFK — when he had to work Saturdays at the Post Office.
His father was a D-Day veteran who, Shifflett would later come to understand, was badly shellshocked from the war.
“One of the few times he seemed happy was at a baseball game,” he said.
12:12 p.m.: A championship proposal
A huge cheer went up on Pennsylvania Ave. in front of the East building of the National Gallery of Art shortly after 11:30, as Jefferson Payne got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Alyssa Hannah. Hannah’s mom, who learned of Payne’s intentions on Friday night, held a shark balloon with the inscription “Finished the Fight.” Another fan led a cheer of “N-A-T-S Nats! Nats! Nats!” as the couple, season-ticket holders from Herndon, shared an embrace even more tender than the one Gerardo Parra and Anibal Sanchez gave Stephen Strasburg in the dugout after Game 6 of the World Series.
“Don’t post it anywhere yet,” Hannah told her family and friends who took video of the moment before making a call to share the news.
“We’ve been dating for four years and she’s probably been waiting for me to propose for three-and-a-half of those years,” said Payne, who said he was shaking during the entire Metro ride downtown. Payne initially planned to propose in front of the Washington Monument en route to the parade route, but Hannah wanted to make sure they got a good spot in front of the main stage. “Had I known,” she said with a laugh, admiring her new ring. “I’m just so excited and happy. I can’t believe it.”
12:11 p.m.: Mixed feelings on a title
Roshelle King, 54, has lived in the District her entire life. By the time the Nationals arrived in 2005, she had purchased her home in Southeast, across the Anacostia River from the stadium. A diehard sports fan, she was thrilled for the capital to get a baseball team, and even more thrilled this year watching her team, written off by so many, win the World Series. But the rapid gentrification of the neighborhood around Nationals Stadium, where cranes etch the skyline building new condominiums, has left her with mixed feelings.
“It’s different,” King said. “I see a lot of new stores going in over there but they won’t come build in Ward 8.” She also worries about neighbors who may eventually be priced out. She’s gotten calls from people interested in purchasing home even though it’s not on the market — but has no intention of selling.
“Not me. I’m not going anywhere,” King said.
12:09 p.m.: Reaching his spot
Jeff Parker, a 57-year-old Alexandria resident, climbed the steps to the National Archives shortly after 9:30 am, finding a prime seat overlooking Constitution Avenue.
“It’s the best street in America to have a parade on,” he said. “It’s the heart of the city, the heart of the nation.” Parker donned a red Nationals jersey, basking in the sun as vendors tried to sell championship pennants on the street below, with nearly three hours remaining until the parade started.
The National Archives steps were littered with posters emblazoned with the team’s mantra: “Fight Finished.” A volunteer hustled on the street below to hand out stacks of them. “I have more if you need them,” he yelled. Parker looked on. He had to work during the Capitals parade celebrating the Stanley Cup in 2018, so he wasn’t going to miss this.“Will they win it next year? I don’t know,” he said. “This is a unique opportunity for the city…and it’s good news.”
12:07 p.m.: Snowplows on a beautiful November day?
Two D.C. snowplows with Nationals banners draped over their beds blocked access to 3rd St. at Independence Ave. as a stream of fans arriving from the Federal Center SW Metro station, on rental scooters and via Uber made their way past the Capitol and tourists toward the main stage off Pennsylvania Ave., where the parade is scheduled to end. Bailey Wood of Manassas Park, who rode Metro in with his family, purchased a couple of World Series champion pennants from a vendor hawking gear from a bench on Madison Dr. Wood, 17, sported a doctored Bryce Harper jersey that, with a little duct tape and black marker, now read CHAMPS! “I needed to do something a little different for the parade,” he said. “Not that there’s any ill will or anything.”
11:26 a.m.: A Washington national anthem
D.C. Washington will start the rally, as he did several Nationals playoff games, by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
10:00 a.m.: Early arrivals
Spencer Patton from Cleveland Park was one of the earliest fans on the scene, claiming a spot at Seventh Street and Constitution Avenue at 6:30 a.m. because he wanted the same spot he had for the Capitals’ parade. “This one means a little more because of the emotional ties,” he said, adding that he had attended the Nats’ first game in 2005, Stephen Strasburg’s debut and the club’s first playoff game.
Jack Dwier, a 65-year-old construction worker from Lake Ridge, Va., who said he grew up supporting the Senators, took a break from his job near the White House to buy $50 in Nats parade gear Saturday morning. “I’m not a band wagoner,” he said, wearing jeans, work boots, camouflage sunglasses and a Nats World Series hat over his long white ponytail. “I’ve been a fan ever since they’ve been here.”
9:55 a.m.: Another Tiesto fiesta
Tiesto is 2-for-2 when it comes to partying with Washington’s championship teams. After getting down with his friend, Alex Ovechkin, and the Capitals after they won the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas in June 2018, the Dutch DJ and record producer was grooving Friday night with the Nationals.
Their #FightFinished, the party at Echostage began for Max Scherzer, Erick Fedde, Trea Turner, Michael A. Taylor, Patrick Corbin, Joe Ross and Gerardo Parra. They probably were not listening to “Baby Shark.”
Hints for a hassle-free day
For alerts on safety, transit and weather from the District, text “NATS” to 888-777. The Capital Weather Gang predicts a sunny but cool day, with highs in the mid- to upper-50s. Layering up would be a good idea. So would taking Metro or using your feet rather than driving, as several major streets will be closed.
Metro will run its normal Saturday schedule (7 a.m.-1 a.m.) with extra trains running at rush-hour levels from 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Parking at Metro lots and garages will be free, as it is on weekends. Stations closest to the parade route are Federal Triangle, Archives and Judiciary Square; because they will be jammed, consider using Metro Center, Gallery Place or Union Station.
It is also selling a commemorative SmarTrip card.
Ava Wallace, Michael Miller, Roman Stubbs, Moriah Ballingit and Scott Allen contributed to this report.
