"The Washington Nationals' brief history includes almost no chapters without Ryan Zimmerman. Less than six months before they used their first ever draft pick on Zimmerman — then a 20-year-old third baseman from the University of Virginia — Nationals executives ran the franchise out of trailers parked in the RFK Stadium lot. They played 134 games before Zimmerman appeared in his first, and they have not played one without him on the roster since.

Zimmerman knows nothing of major league baseball outside Washington. He lives in a Clarendon townhouse, eats dinner at Liberty Tavern and last season at Nationals Park walked to bat while Wale's "D.C. Chillin'" blared at his request. Nowhere else in baseball are a place, a franchise and a player so closely intertwined.

In Washington, the Nationals and Zimmerman have grown up together.

"I'm only 26, but I feel people think that I'm 30-something," Zimmerman said. "They forget that I was up when I was 20 years old. Basically, when I first got called up, I was a baby. I wasn't a grown-up yet. A lot of how I've grown up has been influenced by D.C. culture. It's a special place to me." "