Nats fans celebrate win — without climbing the light poles

WASHINGTON (AP) — A city often characterized as a little uptight and starchy let some raw emotion, and many kegs of beer, flow freely after the Washington Nationals won the World Series.

It would be too much to say that the Nats' underdog run to the title erased the divisions of this fractured town. After all, less than 12 hours after Game 7 ended, the House of Representatives approved a package of ground rules for the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump in a vote that broke along stark partisan lines.

But for a week or so, Washington united under the flag of Nats red.

With the deciding game being played in Houston, thousands of fans sat in a chilly rain at Nationals Park Wednesday night to watch the game together on a Jumbotron. Others poured out of their homes after midnight, to revel with neighbors.

Within minutes of the game's conclusion, fans paraded along U Street, a corridor that's central to Washington's "Chocolate City" heritage but is now the heart of a fast-moving gentrification wave that's transforming the city. For a moment, the racial and economic divides that often pull at Washingtonians seemed to erode.

Black and white men high-fived each other along the sidewalk. Women cheered the team's good fortune. Garbage collectors honked the horns of their trucks in celebration while police officers blared Queen's "We Are the Champions" from their cruisers.

Among some longtime Washingtonians, the victory seems a bit surreal. After all, this is a town that had two separate incarnations of the Washington Senators leave town and went without a baseball team for more than 30 years.

"As a Washington baseball fan since 1948 I rooted for so many bad teams it seems hallucinatory to have cheered for a World Series winner," said Donald Graham, former...

source https://www.chron.com/news/article/Nats-fans-celebrate-win-without-climbing-the-14676069.php