BALTIMORE – It was a cry that emanated, as it often does, from the cheap seats, so high above the playing field that Athletics players on the field at Nationals Park earlier this week did not hear the chant they’re so familiar with yet, for once, was not aimed at their franchise.
“Sell! The! Team! Sell! The! Team!”
On this August evening, it wasn’t desperate and determined fans of the Oakland Athletics imploring owner John Fisher to sell their beloved franchise in the name of competence and to ensure a future in the Bay Area. That future is gone.
No, this time, it was the opposition: Washington Nationals fans, disgusted with their club giving up 54 runs in four games amid a flailing rebuild and uncertain regime change, voiced their displeasure with the Lerner family’s ownership and their desire for more robust stewardship.
Some fans were even clad in T-shirts with the “Sell The Team” message, the Nationals’ iconic curly W flipped upside down to form the “m” in “team.”
