David Huzzard: It's safe to love Zimmerman again

Every now and then, my new life in Virginia Beach, Va., takes me down Princess Anne Road to West Neck Road and past Kellam High School. Whenever I drive that way, I think of Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman. An autographed picture of him also hangs in my favorite seafood restaurant, Margie and Ray's, and after the last two seasons and before this one, whenever I thought of Zimmerman, I was filled with sadness. As a longtime fan of the Nationals, Zimmerman is a part of many of my best memories and watching his downfall was heartbreaking.

On Father's Day 2006, I had purchased a 20-game plan before the season began and never thought to ask anyone else if they wanted in. I was happy to drive to the ballpark by myself and take in a ballgame. I found sitting up in the 500 sections of RFK to be a meditative experience, but for this game, my father wanted to go. He couldn't get a seat anywhere near me but he was in the stadium and we met up soon after the game ended in what was to this point the largest celebration I'd been a part of at a Nationals game. I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone of what happened that day.

Less than a month later, I was back at RFK Stadium on July 4 when Zimmerman hit another walk-off and two years later at the opening of Nationals Park. For most of the rest of 2008, Zimmerman was injured and the Nationals were dreadful. In 2009 and 2010, Zimmerman was among the best players in baseball, but got no recognition playing on one of baseball's worst teams.

Then came 2012 and Zimmerman struggled for some of the year, then got a cortisone shot and finished with a batting line of .282/.346/.478, but none of those offensive numbers contributed to the best image of Zimmerman from the 2012 season. I'm sure you all can recall it if you try and it really doesn't have anything to do with the game the Nats were playing. They were in the process of losing to the Phillies while the Braves were playing the Pirates. Michael Morse was about to come to the plate and when the stadium learned that the Pirates had beat the Braves, I looked into the Nats dugout and Zimmerman had the biggest smile of any of them. He'd suffered through all the losing seasons and here was his reward.

Then the injuries piled up and when he eventually moved to first base, it felt like Zimmerman, the once beloved and only star of the Nationals, had become a burden to his team. It was such a sad and steep decline that many Nationals fans were simultaneously expressing their love for Zimmerman and their desire for the Nationals to find a new first baseman. Then Daniel Murphy talked about launch angle and like magic Zimmerman has 14 home runs, is hitting .368/.409/.709 and is one of the best hitters in baseball.

Now the phrase that so many of us longtime Nationals fans were uttering before the 2017 season - "I still love Zim, but..." can be amended to, "I still love Zim."

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.