No longer is Washington first in war, first in peace and last in the American League. That line is an old vaudeville joke that was inspired by the decades of poor play by the Washington Senators.

But baseball’s Washington franchise is now the Nationals and as National League champions they are playing the Houston Astros in the World Series this week. The Nationals reached this stage as a wild card, having finished second behind Atlanta in the East Division.

The Astros, who won the World Series in 2017, reached this year’s World Series with a dramatic triumph over the New York Yankees in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

The Yankees were two outs from losing that series last Saturday night, but DJ LeMahieu tied Game 6 with a two-run home run.Just as dramatically, though, the Astros’ Jose Altuve hit a two-run homer against Aroldis Chapman in the last of the ninth.

LeMahieu’s home run was typical of his performance this year. His signing as a free agent last January was as significant as any Yankees’ free agent signing going back to the beginning of free agency and Reggie Jackson. The Yankees signed LeMahieu for two years and $24 million. Compare his contract with the contracts of Bryce Harper (Phillies 13 years, $330 million) and Manny Machado (Padres 10 years, $300 million).

The Harper and Machado contracts incidentally could serve as the perfect defense for owners against charges of collusion, but that’s a story for another day.

The LeMahieu signing, on the other hand, says a lot for Brian Cashman, general manager of the Yankees. I have been critical of Cashman to the point that two regular readers of this site have said in e-mails “Enough with Cashman,” one in capital letters a la Donald Trump.

Cashman deserves credit along with his staff, most notably Tim Naehring, for filling large holes created by incessant injuries, but he ignored the team’s pitching problems, and they turned out to be fatal.

Cashman’s stated plan was to keep the player payroll under the $206 million luxury tax payroll not only to avoid paying the tax – which the Yankees have paid each year since the payroll tax was introduced – but also to reduce the tax rate in future seasons. If the Yankees follow through with that plan, they would be expected to sign some free agents this winter, particularly pitchers.

Cashman also has to face the success other teams have had while the bigger-spending Yankees can’t get back to the World Series. The Astros are in the Series for the second time in three years. They won it in 2017. The Boston Red Sox have been World Series champions four times in 15 years. The San Francisco Giants won three times in a five-year span.

And the Yankees? They won the World Series in Cashman’s first three years as general manager, but those were the years of the team Gene Michael put together during George Steinbrenner’s suspension. In the last 19 years the Yankees have won a single World Series and played in two others.

Unlike other teams, the Yankees aren’t expected to make changes at the top. Hal Steinbrenner operates 180 degrees from his father’s behavior. Two years ago Steinbrenner gave Cashman the choice of firing or retaining Joe Girardi as manager.

Many people, including me, didn’t think Cashman had a legitimate reason to fire Girardi, but did anyway, explaining that the Yankees needed a manager who could communicate better with the players, especially the younger players. That sounded like a lot of baloney to me.

But two years later the Yankees still haven’t returned to the World Series, however good Boone’s communication with the players has been.

Boone did a good job this year considering all of the Yankees’ injuries, but he went home while his father goes on to the World Series. Bob Boone, a former major league catcher, is the Nationals’ vice president and senior advisor to the general manager.

One good thing about the Yankees’ failure to beat the Astros is the other members of the Boone family, including Aaron’s brother Bret, a former major league infielder, don’t have to be torn between rooting for the Nationals or the Yankees.