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Washington Nationals’ coaches ride camels into the Circle of Trust on Hump Day...

So yeah, this really happened at Spring Training in West Palm Beach this morning, and Nationals’ skipper Dave Martinez did really say something about getting his team over the “hump”...

By Patrick Reddington
Photo screencap via @JamalCollier on the Tweeter.

If you looked at Twitter this morning and thought you misread something when you saw the word “camels” in a number of Tweets about the Washington Nationals, and thought that perhaps you were still asleep and having one of those weird camel-themed dreams you’re always describing to your friends, you might be shocked to realize that you were actually awake and there actually are camels in camp in West Palm Beach, Florida.

According to reports from the Nationals’ Spring Training facilities, Nationals’ coaches Bob Henley (naturally) and Tim Bogar road camels into the Circle of Trust this morning. If that last sentence just seems made-up to you, we have to get you paying more attention from now on, okay?

Yes, the two coaches, who’ll man third and first base, respectively, as part of new skipper Davey Martinez’s coaching staff this season, decided to ride camels around this morning in what is surely some metaphor for what the Nats need to accomplish this season after failing to get over the “hump” in their last four trips to the postseason.

To take a quote from the new manager completely out of context and pretend that it applies to what’s going on in West Palm Beach today, here’s what Martinez had to say recently when he was asked what getting the Nationals over the “hump” after they’ve suffered four NLDS losses in the last six seasons.

“And we talk about this ‘hump,’ and for me, they’ve accomplished the hump,” Martinez explained.

“And my message to them is, ‘Hey, when we get there it’s just playing one more game. It will game 163, 164, 165. We’re good enough to finish this out, and they know that, and we’ve just got to concentrate on the here and now.”

[ed. note - “It turns out our attempt at a joke about what’s going on in the last few paragraphs was a little too spot on. See below.”]

Here and now... or at least within the last half hour, those humps were like totally real... and the Nationals’ coaches got over them? I’ve gone too far now, just watch the video clips from the writers on the scene below...

Oh, and of course, Nationals fans were on the ball with this stuff:

HERE’S DAVEY MARTINEZ’S ACTUAL EXPLANATION FOR TODAY’S ACTIVITIES:

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