Why the Nats' team Zoom chat captivated us so much

What would you have thought if someone told you a month ago you'd be spending four hours on the night of April 14 watching two dozen players, coaches and others from the 2019 Nationals hold a video conference call with each other while (sort of) re-watching Game 7 of the World Series?

Or that it would be the most enjoyable thing you've watched in the last month?

In these strangest of times, it's the strangest of entertainment that is captivating us. And, more importantly, bringing us all together in a way we never could or would have been if we were actually allowed to be together in person.

The wildly entertaining Zoom group chat - officially titled the "2019 World Series Game 7 Reunion Special" - was thrown together in short order by Ryan Zimmerman and MASN "Nats Xtra" pregame and postgame host Dan Kolko to coincide with the network's re-airing of the final epic game of the Fall Classic. The idea: Bring a few members of the Nationals together to re-watch the game and also raise money for the Pros for Heroes charity Zimmerman and his wife, Heather, just created to provide healthcare professionals the tools, equipment and meals they and their families need to help the fight against the coronavirus.

At the outset, Zimmerman and Kolko were hoping to get a few familiar faces on with them for a few minutes throughout the game re-broadcast. What they wound up getting was a rollicking team reunion that essentially opened the Nats clubhouse to the public for the first time.

It began with Zimmerman, Kolko and MASN game analyst F.P. Santangelo. Then manager Davey Martinez, general manager Mike Rizzo and three members of the coaching staff (Paul Menhart, Chip Hale, Tim Bogar) joined them to watch the first several innings of the game.

That was entertaining enough, but then the old guys signed off and the team signed on. And we mean the whole team (with only a handful of notable exceptions). At one point, there were 17 people on the live chat, with Zimmerman and Kolko joined by Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, Aníbal Sánchez, Yan Gomes, Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Adam Eaton, Sean Doolittle, Daniel Hudson, batting practice pitcher Ali Modami, Gerardo Parra (live from Japan), Matt Adams (with a replica Commissioner's Trophy on his couch), Anthony Rendon (for about five minutes, which was as much as he could take) and Brian Dozier (in various states of undress or costumed dress).

At times, it was a train wreck. Ostensibly, they were supposed to watch Game 7 together. But only Kolko, Zimmerman, Scherzer and Strasburg had the MASN broadcast on TV from their D.C. area homes. A few others were streaming it on their computers, laptops or iPads from their hometowns, their online feeds delayed from the TV feed. Others weren't watching at all. If you were hoping for a batter-by-batter breakdown of the most important game in club history, you weren't getting it here.

But that didn't really matter. The fun of this wasn't so much a thorough rehashing of the game but a once-in-a-lifetime window into the clubhouse, or the team charter (where, apparently, Scherzer loses plenty of money playing cards).

You got to hear the players rag on each other. You got to hear them share stories. You got to see them laugh hysterically at Parra and Dozier's shtick. You got to see the usually careful-in-public Zimmerman reveal his true sarcastic personality and razor-sharp sense of humor. You even got to hear a few curse words from a player or two who forget he wasn't actually in the clubhouse but was on a live-streamed video chat being watched by fans.

And, yes, you did eventually get to hear some actual commentary and reaction to Game 7, from some unabashed blasting of AJ Hinch for warming up Gerrit Cole but never using him with the season on the line to the astonishment that Corbin's gutsy three-inning relief appearance seemed to last for days to some great insights about the bottom of the ninth as Hudson and Gomes explained their gameplan to strike out Michael Brantley for the final out, and as both Gomes and Zimmerman revealed how two umpires started congratulating them before the game was officially over.

The evening began with a few thousand folks watching. It ended with more than 273,000 views, and (more importantly) more than $200,000 raised for Pros for Heroes.

And this all happened through word of mouth on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Could you have even conceived of such a virtual event only one month ago?

No, and that's what was so remarkable about this. This only became possible because of a global pandemic that has left us all confined to our homes and left these professional ballplayers away from each other when they should've been flying home Tuesday night from an interleague series in Seattle.

At one point late in the chat, Zimmerman got a bit emotional talking about how the 2019 World Series champions have kind of been denied the victory lap they deserve. It began in February, when the Nationals played second fiddle in their own West Palm Beach complex because of the Astros' cheating scandal. And it has continued in April, with no opening day, banner-raising or ring ceremony to celebrate in front of a sellout crowd on South Capitol Street.

These Nats players and their fans can't have the full defending champs experience every other previous champion had, and who knows when it will finally happen or what it will look like when it does.

Then again, what previous champion and its fan base got to spend four hours hanging out together, re-living great moments, sharing previously unknown anecdotes and laughing hysterically with and at each other?

The 2019 Nationals may not get their traditional victory lap. But they - and we - will always have this unexpected byproduct of this most unusual moment in history.