I/51jQ%2Be3h%2BJL.jpg' alt='Strat O Matic Football S' title='Strat O Matic Football S' />Why does this happen The existential crisis of the D. C. sports fan. Washington Post sports columnist Barry Svrluga discusses the familiar pain Nationals fans are feeling after the latest season ending playoff loss. Thomas JohnsonThe Washington PostTheres a joke in the office about how we all take turns writing A1 stories about the narrowest slice of the sports world Washington teams having a chance to do something special in the playoffs andor Washington teams failing to do something special in the playoffs. Its a story we pass around, nurture to varying degrees  Barry Svrluga smashed todays offering and patch up to fit the latest circumstances to the extent the latest circumstances have changed. Which isnt usually that much. Anyhow, the joke is now something like eight years old. Thats an old joke. Old jokes stop being funny. Are you writing about the 7. Washington, D. C. Mike Bobys asked me around 1 3. I took out my laptop at the Big Stick and tried to write something about the Nats 9 8 loss but instead wound up staring into space. Another fan named Ryan Clagett found us in the corner and sat down. He said what I knew he would say because its what everyone was saying, which is why none of this is particularly worth writing because youre already felt it. I want to say disbelief, but, I mean, I expected it, he said. That isnt the full story, though, because he also bought tickets thinking this time might be different. When we were up 4 1, thats when I thought, Oh my God. Oh my God. This might be it, he said. Best Animated Desktop Backgrounds'>Best Animated Desktop Backgrounds. And then here we go again. Search titles only has image posted today bundle duplicates include nearby areas bemidji, MN bji eastern montana mnt. The Victory point race is close, and once again it looks like it will come down to the end of the year tourney to decide the region champion The draft for this. Can Russell Wilsons Seahawks make up ground in the NFC West Or will Carson Palmers Cardinals tighten their grip on the division Elliot Harrison picks the winner. Strat O Matic Football S' title='Strat O Matic Football S' />It felt like 2. Washington Nationals fans sound off after their team suffered a season ending loss to the Chicago Cubs on Oct. Erin Patrick OConnor,Monica AkhtarThe Washington PostThats where Im at. I was dangling from the same yo yo. When the Nats beat up on the Cubs in Game 4, my very first thought was, Wow, theyre setting up Washington fans for another inconceivable letdown. Then I switched to thinking it just wasnt possible for it to happen again, and that momentum and home field and superior talent and the pity of the universe would be enough. Except then I thought that optimism was further proof that the most comical disaster awaited. And then I wondered how many times one city can flip tails in a row. Purple/v4/cf/5c/7b/cf5c7bbd-a880-9dbd-4d75-01988aba47f2/screen960x960.jpeg' alt='Strat O Matic Football S' title='Strat O Matic Football S' />It was the same thing during the game. Gio Gonzalez was erratic in the first inning, and I was convinced the Nats would crater. Michael A. Taylor was heroic, and I thought something had finally changed. Max Scherzer and Matt Wieters did whatever that thing was in the fifth inning, and it was same old Washington, to the point that a 3. I had interviewed him after he wore a paper bag on his head to a Redskins game, and then he poured out his ever loving D. C. sports soul right in front of Shake Shack. The Nats climbed back in it, and I started recording video of dang near every seventh and eighth inning at bat, thinking of what I would type when I posted the video of fans celebrating a game tying home run. Bedlam, I remember considering. Insanity. With Wade Davis running on bread crumbs and Gatorade vapors, it felt inevitable. Then the rally came up one run short, and I immediately lapsed into that comfortably exaggerated self pity, flinging out all those numbers of futility and the echoes of the past, and the sad photos of hollow eyed fans staring at the wrong team celebrating. Everything about it was so, so familiar. Even thinking it was familiar was familiar I did a full lap inside Verizon Center after the latest Game 7 loss in May, thinking how familiar that felt, and now I was remembering the familiarity of familiarity. Its okay its okay, one of the last fans to leave the lower bowl told one of the biggest Nats fans I know a few minutes after 1, when the ushers started asking us to leave. No, its not, he replied. The same old stuff every time. Literally, its the same exact stuff. Which is the crazy part because the specifics were not in any way the same. This was gobbledygook none of us had ever seen before catcher interference, runs scoring on strikeouts, inning ending outs via replayed pickoff moves, a veteran outfielder just whiffing completely on a line drive, 4. It was one of the most unforgettable playoff games any drugged out Strat O Matic player ever could invent did Strat O Matic have catcher interference Washington losses. It was unique, and it was part of a stupefyingly consistent whole. It stood by itself, and it blended in. You expected it, and you didnt, and then you did, and then you didnt, and when it happened, you sort of did, even if you still couldnt believe it. Its like the same old same old. How many times can you do the same old same old Jenny Schwab asked. Trados 5.5 Download here. She said a lot more, too, and then she read over the words she had just said. Oh, this is so sad, she said. Godammit. Its terribly sad within that narrowest slice of the sports world, in which you just want to see a Washington team succeed and just want to stop repeating the dumbest of all numbers. Sixty nine straight seasons without a conference final appearance in football, basketball, baseball or hockey, easily the longest such streak in the country. Twelve times that such an appearance was just one win away a record of 0 1. A record of 3 1. None of that makes sense, and its why people started sending me the sort of notes you shouldnt send journalists after midnight. Luis Why Why does this happen. Why do I even email you at 1 am. God what an awful loss. I hate baseball. Andrew I would argue that these sports teams have failed this population, and have violated their civic duty in doing so. Nick Why does this happen always and why do I care so muchMarkus With each consecutive loss, Im finding it less and less possible to reconcile the fact this causes me legitimate stress. And so on. I dont begrudge anyone who feels that way. This has been a really unbelievable stretch so much regular season success, so much tantalizing postseason promise, so many endings in that sickening silence. But coming back for more isnt much sillier than caring about any of this in the first place. That doesnt mean you shouldnt be furious over weird umpiring or strange managerial choices or mental mistakes or D. C. sports trolls or jinxy bloggers or exorbitant prices or familiar feelings or sickening silence. The thing about sports, though, is that even when you know your team is going to lose, you also sort of wonder whether your team might win. Even when its probably stupid to wonder that. Even after 6. 9 straight seasons. And so the slightly more positive version of those post midnight notes sounded just as convincing. Mike I refuse to give up on these teams even though I know going in they will tear my heart out. Jimmy Ive been alive for 2. Havent seen a championship in my lifetime. But it will happen. A different Andrew Drove six hours home to get to this game tonight. Heading back up tomorrow for college. Dont regret it. Itll make it sweeter when we make it. The guy pictured above, one of the last people inside the park Some day, man, he said. It cant go on forever. Or Captain Obvious, the guy in the costume youve seen on MASN. I ran into him six months ago as the Caps were losing Game 7 at home, and I ran into him again on this Friday the 1. Nats lost Game 5 at home. At some point its got to stop, he said. Law of averages. Some day were going to break through.