Horrible. Unprofessional. Embarrassing. Those are just three of the words you could use to describe the play of the Washington Nationals last season, when they regressed in almost every way and became professional baseball’s worst team.

And yet here I sit, halfway through the off-season, waiting for those final three months to go by so I can once again head to the stadium.

Why? The Nats, again, have yet to make a dramatic pick-up in the offseason. They made an honest bid for Mark Teixeira, but they lost him — probably because of their reputation. They are a small-time team in the big town, they’re synonymous with losing, they aren’t taken seriously right now by Major League Baseball. Only winning will change that, and I don’t see much sign that this team is about to become a winner.

But what if they do? Washington loves winners and it will back the Nats if the team can win. The new ballpark has everything it needs to become a rockin’ little joint if the team can give us a reason to party.

Those are the kinds of thoughts you have as a fan of a bad baseball team as December turns into January. You wait and you hope and you dream. And that’s just what I’m doing.