LOVERRO: Nationals fans in need of refresher on supporting their team in luck

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

If you know a Washington Nationals fan, here’s a gift you might want to put under the tree this Christmas: A manual on how to understand a trip to the ballpark.

It’s written for children, but from the reaction I’ve seen from the Nationals fanbase this year in what has been a disappointing season for their team, they are still in the childhood stage of fandom.

I’ve never seen a fanbase that was so willing to bail on its team so quickly as many of the Nationals fans who I’ve heard from. Granted, their team failed them, but they were falling over each other trying to see who could stick a fork in their team first.

The tantrums, the social media lynching of manager Matt Williams, the basement computer managers who couldn’t tell the difference between information and knowledge — it wasn’t a good year for Nationals fans, either.

Maybe they need to be reacquainted with the game — the joy of the game, the pleasure and the pain that didn’t exist in this town from 1972 to 2004 — with a book targeted for children.

I don’t think that’s what author Charley Vascellaro and illustrator Kevin O’ Malley had in mind when they came up with the idea for the book “At the Ballpark — A Fan’s Companion.”

The book started in a Baltimore bar, where Vascellaro was a bartender and O’Malley a customer.

“[O’Malley] would come in the bar and he would be doodling while we talked baseball,” Vascellaro said. “We thought we should collaborate on something about baseball. He’s done a lot of children’s books as an author and illustrator. He thought with my interest and passion in baseball and his ability to draw, we could put something together.”

It is their passion for baseball that inspired the book. “I’m a writer, but I’m a big fan as well,” Vascellaro said. “I’ve seen that the last generation of kids are getting away from the game. They’re not as into it as we were when we were kids. It makes me sad, and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get kids engaged in it.”

The book is geared toward young baseball fans being introduced to the experience of watching a baseball game — either live or on television or some other device at home. And, given the pledge by commissioner Rob Manfred to commit to recruiting a new, younger generation of fans to the game, the book couldn’t have come at a better time.

The duo kicked around different ideas, but settled on something simple, yet smart — an illustrated manual to take the reader throughthe process of a baseball game and all the surroundings of a ballpark.

“We thought it would be nice to take kids through the process of being at a game,” Vascellaro said. “We started going to games together at Camden Yards and that’s where we got our material — what happens now, what’s the first thing that they have to do to get to the game, what happens after that? There’s a lot of stuff on the scoreboard. What does all that mean? So, we sat there inning by inning, taking notes about what kids might need some help with, like what happens when the catcher drops a third strike, things like that.”

It illustrates things like the “sights, sounds and scents outside the ballpark,” and the layout of the baseball field and details about each position on the field, among other components of the baseball experience.

They came up with a prototype and field tested it. “We put it in kids’ hands and watched what they seemed interested in and what they didn’t,” he said.

They published the book on Aug. 1, and so far, it’s received positive reviews. “We’ve been getting photos from parents with their kids using the books in places like Kansas City and Rochester,” Vascellaro said. “We’ve been posting them on our Facebook page.”

He said while the book is geared toward youngsters learning about the game, it could be used for any age. “It’s about increasing awareness of the game for anyone,” Vascellaro said.

It may be too late for this generation of Nationals fans who treat baseball like a football game, so maybe this labor of love from Vascellaro and O’Malley can help the next generation.

Teach your children well.

• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.