Nationals change virtual ring ceremony at players' request

After consulting with players who expressed a strong desire to wait to receive their World Series rings until they could all gather in person, the Nationals announced they will no longer hold their originally planned virtual ring ceremony Sunday night.

The Nationals still will televise a show at 7 p.m. Sunday night on MASN in which the ring design is revealed and a handful of key players are interviewed, but they won't hand out the rings to players until a future date when everyone is gathered together.

Thus continues the strange saga of what typically is a straightforward endeavor - the handing out of championship rings - but has turned anything but straightforward during an unprecedented global pandemic.

For much of the last two months, team officials steadfastly insisted they would not hold a championship celebration until the club was playing at home in front of its own fans. But as it became clear that was highly unlikely to happen in 2020, the Nationals announced plans Tuesday night to hold a virtual ceremony in which players would be mailed their rings and collectively open them during a Zoom chat that would be televised Sunday (the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the team's resurgence from a 19-31 start).

"Our World Series rings were originally scheduled to be presented to our players and staff prior to the second home game of the 2020 season," the club said in a statement issued today. "As fans, media, employees, coaches and players continued to ask about when World Series rings would be distributed, the Nationals planned a special, first of its kind virtual ring ceremony. We knew it wouldn't be ideal, but it would offer the collective opportunity to reconnect with our fans and support important work being done in our community by Capital Area Food Bank and World Central Kitchen who has served 350,000 meals from Nationals Park during this pandemic.

"We talked to a number of our team leaders who liked the idea. We proceeded with plans to create a virtual experience that would bring players and fans together to share in the unveiling of our World Series ring design for the first time. Just like everyone else, our plans were at the mercy of the pandemic. As our fans know, May 24 is a special day in our club's history and we worked feverishly - navigating plant closures and government shutdowns - to pull together a world-class show."

Players, however, expressed frustration with the nature of the virtual event, not wanting to celebrate the pinnacle of their careers apart from each other. They convinced management to scrap the virtual ring presentation.

"When team leaders discussed the plan this week with the players, the players collectively decided they would prefer to receive their rings when the team could be physically reunited," the Nationals said in their statement. "We support that decision."

The club will proceed as planned with the two-night premier of "Improbable," a team-produced documentary about the 2019 postseason. Part 1 airs tonight at 7 p.m. on MASN and nationals.com. Part 2 airs Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on both outlets.

At the conclusion of Part 2 of the documentary, the Nationals will still unveil the ring design. After that, they'll be streaming a new show, "Kolko & Friends Live After Party," with "Nats Xtra" host Dan Kolko interviewing Ryan Zimmerman, Max Scherzer and Howie Kendrick.