Why Are the the Washington Nationals So Bad? Blame It on a Ghost

(Sept. 15) -- As the baseball season winds down and the best teams head into the playoffs, one team -- the Washington Nationals -- has consistently played so badly that some are speculating that it may be (shudder) haunted.

A Baltimore Sun article suggests the ghost of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, may be the cause of the ongoing mediocrity of the Nationals' on-field play since they arrived in the nation's capital in 2005.

When the former Montreal Expos moved into their new home, Nationals Park, in 2008, they probably didn't notice that the stadium, situated near the Anacostia River, is in the same location where Booth's autopsy was performed in 1865.

And, as Mark Greenbaum and David O'Leary point out in their Sun piece, "Next door at Fort McNair, Booth's co-conspirators were held and tried at the country's first federal penitentiary, and four of them were hanged there in July 1865."

Greenbaum and O'Leary speculate that Booth's spirit may be targeting the team because Lincoln himself was a fan (and sometime player) of "town ball," a precursor to our national pastime.

"For Booth and his co-conspirators, Lincoln's affection of old-time baseball might be enough for them to focus their eternal hatred against it," they said.

While ghosts have been reported in ballparks around the country, only a few specters have actually been accused of causing the failures or successes of the home team.

In Chicago, the Curse of the Billy Goat is often blamed for the woes of the Chicago Cubs, who haven't played in a World Series since 1945. The so-called curse originated that year when William Sianis, owner of the famed Billy Goat Tavern, was bounced from a game at Wrigley Field when the smell of his pet goat became a bit much.

An angry Sianis cursed the club, exclaiming, "The Cubs ain't gonna win no more."

And then there was the Curse of the Bambino, a legend that began when the Boston Red Sox failed to win a World Series for 86 years after the team sold the legendary Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees in 1919.

The curse apparently ended in 2004, when the Sox took the American League Championship from the Yankees and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series.

Dustin Pari, one of the real-life ghost busters of the Syfy Network's popular "Ghost Hunters" series, has spent 17 years investigating the paranormal and knows a thing or two about things that go bump in the night.

Pari, who will soon lead an investigation into the reportedly haunted Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in St. Augustine, Fla., often moonlights at McCoy Stadium in Rhode Island, home to the Pawtucket Red Sox minor league team, creating audio/video graphics for the park's center field display board.

"A lot of teams have superstitions and back stories that become part of oral tradition and folklore, and with the Red Sox, it's always been the Bambino curse," Pari told AOL News.

"They've always kind of marked that as the time where the team started heading south, and no matter what they did, no matter how good the seasons were going, they could never rebound."

Pari says the so-called Bambino curse was, for 86 years, a big deal to New England sports fans.

"Oh, it was huge. It was like Santa Claus for baseball. It was something that everyone believed in. There were times when it was almost palpable, where you could see the season start to slide off, and people would automatically start talking about Babe Ruth."

The TV and real-life ghost hunter speculates that the idea of Booth's ghost putting a hex on the Nationals is something that people might come to believe.

"It's one of those things that people, I think, kind of look to, to rationalize the demise of a franchise. Naturally, they're looking for answers.

"I'd be more than happy to offer my services if they ever want me to come down and take a look around for them."

Pari says it wouldn't surprise him if the late Booth is lingering at Nationals Park.

"Who knows, maybe there is some type of residual energy hanging around the place," he said. But, "regardless if there is any spirit activity still present at any stadium across the country or not, I think it's kind of far-fetched to be trying to place the blame on that for missed fly balls and bad strikeouts. You really should look at the team and make changes where necessary."

Every autumn, in towns and cities all across America where baseball teams haven't fared so well during the season, there's always the "wait until next year" sentiment.

Hopefully, when the Washington Nationals take to the field for the first time in the spring of 2011, the rallying cry will be "Play ball!" Or maybe it'll be, simply, "Boo!"