Cuse Country

What do the Syracuse Mens Lacrosse team, a couple thousand gays and lesbians, and me all have in common?

No, not that. You have a dirty mind. That’s just wrong.

The answer is, all of us were at Nationals Park in Washington, DC last night for the Nats-Angels game. The team is in DC for today’s visit to the White House as part of “NCAA Champions Day” (which has been and shall be discussed much more thoroughly by those SU blogs whose authors actually know something about lacrosse like Orange:44 and TNIAAM). The team got a “welcome message” on the Jumbotron midway through the game; I caught the word “Syracuse” out of the corner of my eye but I was too slow with the cameraphone to provide evidence. Most other groups that were “welcome”d to the game were local LGBT organizations, as it was the fourth annual “Night OUT at the Nationals” game.

As the Nats predictably trailed going into the bottom of the ninth, my brother (who treated me to the game) drew my attention back to the scoreboard. The Nats’ version of “Mr Excitement” was in the crowd trying to rally the fans in support of the team. But there was an unusual amount of orange around him. Turns out he’d planted himself right in the middle of the SU lax team. The guys were mugging for the camera and hooting and cheering to try to whip up some crowd support. Mr Excitement announced their presence to the assemblage, trying to get their winning mojo to rub off on the home team. As the team stood and waved, my brother realized that they were only a few sections over from where we were sitting. I was able to hastily take this incredibly shitty photo with my phone on max zoom:

This could be a picture of the moon landing for all you know, except there is clearly a nice chunky orange shirt in the crowd. That guy, and the people around him, are basically the team — most of the rest of the fans in that section had already departed (if they were ever there in the first place; it was a Monday night and there had already been a rain delay). Anyway, the Nats got the tying run to 2nd base but lost. Not enough win-mojo in the house… or perhaps they were just saving it for the football team….

(PS. Someday I will get a camera with a real lens. I promise.)