Formal professional baseball has been played in Washington on an off-and-on basis since 1872. In all that time, only two Washington teams have started a season 14-4: the 1932 Washington Senators, who finished 93-61 and won the American League pennant the next season, and the 2012 Washington Nationals, who reached that mark Wednesday night courtesy of their 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres.
And you know what happens when your team starts 14-4 and your pitching staff leads the National League in ERA? Glowing magazine pieces, like this one from Sports Illustrated's Ben Reiter.
The article itself is a fairly interesting look at the development of the Nationals organization from also-rans into contenders, including the pursuits of Mark Teixeira and Prince Fielder. But we did like this quote from Mike Rizzo regarding the trade for Gio Gonzalez.
"A lot of people say we gave up the future for the present," says the 51-year-old Rizzo, but he knows better, as it appears the Nationals simply turned their already promising future into an even brighter one.
Or, to put it another way, The Future Is Now.