David Huzzard: The importance of a winning season

With every passing day as the playoffs become more and more of an improbability, it is important to remember the 2015 Washington Nationals are still playing for something. With 78 wins and eleven games to play, the Nationals need to go 4-7 to clinch their fourth consecutive winning season. This might not sound like much or even that important. What's the big difference between 82 wins and 78 at this point? The Washington Nationals aren't making the playoffs either way, but the last time a Washington baseball franchise had four consecutive winning seasons was 1933.

The 1933 Senators were the third Washington team to go to the World Series and Joe Cronin's squad did so with 99 wins. In those days, there were no playoffs and the only way to play in the World Series was to be the best. None of the Senators teams from the four previous seasons had gone to the World Series and this was their first time in the series since 1925.

The 1933 Senators were a much different team than those Senators. First off there was no Walter Johnson - he had retired after the 1927 season - the four main starting pitchers for the Senators that season were General Crowder, who finished with a 24-15 record over 299 1/3 innings pitched with a 3.97 ERA and 110 strikeouts, Earl Whitehall, who was their most valuable that season with an ERA+ of 125, a 22-8 record and 270 innings pitched, and rounding out the staff were Lefty Stewart and Monte Weaver, who both had under 4.00 ERAs.

The 1933 Senators were the best run prevention team in the American League that season and held opponents to an average of 4.35 runs a game, but they were also a good offensive club and scored 5.56 runs a game. The offense was led by manager Joe Cronin, who was also the shortstop and put up a batting line of .309/.398/.445 while belting five home runs and driving in 118. The power leader for the 1933 Senators was Joe Kuhel who led the team with 11 home runs and slugged .467. The Senators lineup featured four batters with an over .300 batting average. Cronin and Kuhel were two of them with Ossie Bluege and Heine Manush being the others. Adding to that powerful quartet was Goose Goslin, who was the fifth player on the squad with an over .800 OPS.

The 1933 Senators were much different than the 2015 Nationals. They were the best of the four consecutive winning seasons, while this Nationals team very well might be the worst (or at least have the worst record). That 1933 Senators team featured four future hall of famers, while this Nationals team might have one. The 2015 Washington Nationals have done nothing but frustrate and disappoint their fans, while the 1933 Senators gave D.C. a rare glimpse at greatness. Bryce Harper has done the same in 2015, but that hasn't been enough to carry the rest of the team.

Finishing with a fourth consecutive winning season is still important and would be historic for Washington baseball fans. It's something that hasn't happened for a very long time and some of that has to do with not having a team for 33 years, but more of it has to do with Washington's baseball long tradition of losing. Aside from brief periods from 1924-33 and 2012-present, Washington baseball hasn't been a winner, and sometimes it's worth it to just appreciate a winner.

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.