Teddy mascot finally wins Nats' Presidents Race

Teddy — Mr. Rough Rider — had never before won, losing more than 500 times since 2006, when the Washington Nationals baseball team began having races among 10-foot-tall foam renderings of Roosevelt, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln at home games.

The crowd cheered wildly Wednesday when Teddy triumphed in the last game of the 2012 regular season, which turned out to be a 5-1 victory for Washington over the Philadelphia Phillies. Teddy was helped when a green mascot wearing a Phillies jersey — a distant cousin of the Phillie Phanatic, perhaps? — knocked down the other three presidents.

The game's very next batter, Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, hit a homer leading off the bottom of the fourth for the home team's first run of the afternoon. The hitter after that, Michael Morse, doubled and eventually scored, too.

Coincidence?

Asked whether he'd been inspired by the outcome of the mascot race, Zimmerman rolled his eyes.

"I am so glad Teddy won, so we can stop talking about Teddy. People get more excited for a mascot race than a game," Zimmerman said, before adding in a voice drenched with sarcasm: "Yes, I'm excited Teddy won. I'm ecstatic."

Teddy's triumph is the latest in a streak of unprecedented success for the Nationals.

They clinched their first NL East division title Monday and are bringing postseason Major League Baseball to the nation's capital for the first time since the Washington Senators lost in the 1933 World Series. Wednesday's victory was the Nationals' 98th of the season, the most in baseball.