As the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros faced off in the 115th World Series to culminate the Major League Baseball season, the students of Cabrini chose which team they were rooting for.
This was the Nationals’ first appearance in the Fall Classic, while being the Astros’ second in three seasons. With the Nationals looking for their first title and Houston trying to cement their role as a dynasty, this series had many story lines to root for and follow.
The Nationals took home the Commissioner’s Trophy in a seven-game classic. This was one of the more improbable championships in recent memory, considering the Nats were 19-31 in May. The team had also never won a single playoff series in their history prior to going on this World Series run.
Wyatt Fleck, a sophomore exercise science major, is a Philadelphia Phillies fan. However, he had been pulling for the Houston Astros in this series.
Fleck is not particularly a fan of the Astros but rooting for a division rival in the Nationals just does not seem right to him. He feels that his allegiance to Philadelphia would prevent him from representing a fellow National League East team.
“It’s not that I decided I want the Astros to win it all,” Fleck said, “but I’m just not a big fan of the Nationals. I won’t be rooting for them because they are in the same division as the Phillies.”
Sophomore business major Garrett Laraia was rooting for his favorite team, the Washington Nationals, to win the World Series. Laraia is a native of northern Virginia, not too far outside of Washington, D.C. He grew up a die-hard fan of the ball club, attending home Nationals games at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and Nationals Park.
“I’m a hometown D.C. boy. I’ve been rooting for the Nationals since I was 5-years-old when they moved to D.C.,” Laraia said before the series. “If they win this it’s going to mean everything to me. The [Washington Capitals’] Stanley Cup in 2018 was the best and winning this in 2019 is just going to make everything better.”
Laraia was ecstatic to see his team finally win it all. There were times where he doubted whether they would win a postseason series, let alone a World Series trophy.But the Nats rallied on and the life-long fan got to see it happen at last.
“Finally. We made it over the hump.”
