It is only appropriate that the Washington Nationals, whose season began with so much hope and a dramatic first-game win, would end their home season with a rainout.

I was there Thursday for the final bow, even though I doubted from mid-afternoon on that this game would be played. I had to see the new stadium one last time before I bid it goodbye for half a year. The ownership delayed the rainout long enough to milk every dime it could out of fan concessions one last time, giving me a chance to take a final walkaround. Still, by the time the game got called, I was gone and feeling sad.

It is painfully hard for me to believe what has happened in the six months since I first saw the Nats play the O’s in a pre-season game in a brand-new stadium. The team collapsed and became baseball’s worst squad; there was little visible evidence that the fabled Plan was doing anything to improve things; the owners started squabbling with the city; the team failed to sign its first-round draft pick; and the Nats head into the off-season in worse shape than ever.

How did this happen? How could this happen? The Post and the Times have some thoughts about this, and I’m mostly just disgusted.

Washington has such a terrible history in Major League Baseball and it seems inconceivable that we are here again, in last place, adrift, with questions being raised about the ownership and management. This was the Washington squad that was supposed to end the nonsense that the Senators rained down on us, turning away a whole generation of fans from the ballpark. This team was supposed to be different.

All I want is a little hope — just a little. Get a middlin’ pitcher in the off-season, find a decent, non-ancient free agent or two, do something to upgrade this sad excuse for a baseball team. Another year like 2008, and I fear the Nats will be the latest Washington baseball squad to death-spiral its way into oblivion.