The Washington Nationals had a very bad day yesterday.
It all started at exactly 6:42 pm when they sent out this tweet from their official account.
The start of tonight's #Nats - #Braves game will be delayed. We will provide more information as soon as it is available.— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 6, 2017
Seems pretty standard, a rain delay notice, that happens, but what happened next is where this story turns south for the NL East leaders. It BARELY rained, in fact, not a single drop hit the ground for more than an hour-and-a-half and when it did rain, it was light and lasted for a few minutes.
The fans were pissed.
At 9:39 pm, they posted this update, followed by a tweet ten minutes later that the game would begin at 10:10 p.m.
pic.twitter.com/2gkRbMfOnQ— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 7, 2017
After losing the game 5-2 to the Atlanta Braves, the team posted this notice today at 11:54 a.m.
Philadelphia Phillies
Complete coverage of the Fightin' Phils and their MLB rivals from NBC Sports Philadelphia.
A message from the Washington Nationals: pic.twitter.com/xsXOBvTDyJ— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 7, 2017
Here's the problem, if you're going to be active on social media, you have to read the concerns of your fans. Delaying a game because of the threat of rain and never having rain is unfortunate, but acceptable. Going three hours without posting an update while fans spend their hard-earned time and money trying to attend the baseball game is unacceptable. Once the comments began pouring in harder than the rain was falling, the team should have done their best to let their fans know what was happening and offer some sort of solution or explanation. Leaving them in the cold is where this became a huge failure.
…and oh did the tweets roll in.
Could be in the 4th inning by now. Still no rain @ 8:10 #WashingtonNationals pic.twitter.com/4L84yleinU— UTSEAY (@utseay) July 7, 2017
0 rain drops have fallen. 0. The same number of playoffs series won in Nationals history.— Adam (@clonesNbravos) July 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/cpalazzo92/status/883104828297236480
Even one of the players, Ender Inciarte, got in on the act.
This No-Rain delay is something i've never seen before!!— Ender Inciarte (@enderinciartem) July 7, 2017
Can't. The tarp is dry. https://t.co/Nomy7ROZ7x— Ender Inciarte (@enderinciartem) July 7, 2017
Here's a look at the crowd that braved the wait.
Your remaining crowd after the 3-hour rainless delay debacle at #NatsPark pic.twitter.com/amZX2rZAH0— David O'Brien (@DOBrienAJC) July 7, 2017
And they're still waiting.
Two hours into tonight's delay, D.C. sports fans are still waiting for a Stanley Cup, a NLCS appearance and rain.— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) July 7, 2017
