Already nostalgic for the Nationals’ wild 2019 season and thrilling World Series victory? Soon you will be able to relive all of the excitement—and, we assume, learn a lot more about what happened behind the scenes—in a new book about the team’s adventures over the last year. Written by Washington Post beat reporter Jesse Dougherty, who covered the entire season, the book was just acquired by Simon & Schuster, according to Publisher’s Marketplace. The title will be Buzz Saw, a reference to a quote by Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg after the team clinched a World Series berth. After starting off as a wild-card team and taking down the Brewers, Dodgers, and Cardinals, Strasburg said that the team was “the buzz saw” others ran into during the post-season.
I keep thinking about this Stephen Strasburg quote from right after the Nationals clinched a spot in the World Series: “You have a great year, and you can run into a buzz saw. Maybe this year we’re the buzz saw.”
— Jesse Dougherty (@dougherty_jesse) October 24, 2019
Will the book find an audience beyond the DC area? It’s certainly a dramatic story, with the Nationals underperforming for much of the season before finding a way to turn things around in dramatic fashion. There will also be some off-field drama, including manager Davey Martinez’s heart attack and—we presume—the controversial visit to the White House during which catcher Kurt Suzuki donned a MAGA hat.
An on-sale date for the book has not yet been set.
Madeline Rundlett is an editorial fellow for Washingtonian. She previously covered All-Met sports for the Washington Post and was an editorial intern at The Hill. Madeline graduated from the George Washington University with a degree in Political Communication in 2019.
