Zimmerman is a "completely different" All-Star eight years later

It wasn't exactly a joyous occasion for Ryan Zimmerman. Sure, he was excited to be an All-Star for the first time in his career, but his trip to St. Louis for the 2009 Midsummer Classic coincided with several developments that were not to be celebrated.

Only five days earlier, Zimmerman's grandmother Ilene had died, forcing him to leave the Nationals and head to North Carolina for her funeral. He rejoined the club in Houston in time for the club's first-half finale - a 5-0 loss, the lone bright spot coming in the form of backup catcher Wil Nieves' 4-for-4 day at the plate - and then immediately flew to St. Louis for All-Star festivities.

Having lost 10-of-13 to reach the break with a 26-61 record - nine fewer wins than any other team in the majors - the rest of the Nationals dispersed around the country only to learn late that night that manager Manny Acta had been fired.

It was against that backdrop that Zimmerman tried to get excited about his first All-Star appearance.

"Some week, huh?" he said with a sigh and a shrug during a break from his media session that Monday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency.

So maybe it wasn't the greatest experience. But no big deal, because the 24-year-old third baseman surely would be back again, whether for the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim or the 2011 contest in Phoenix or countless more he figured to play in as his career took off.

Zimmerman was young, successful, single and the designated face of a Nationals franchise that had undergone a front-office overhaul in March, drafted a phenom pitcher named Stephen Strasburg in June and believed better days were straight ahead.

Who could have imagined 2,920 days would pass before Zimmerman would find himself in uniform for the All-Star Game again?

Things, to put it mildly, have changed just a bit for Zimmerman and for the Nationals in the last eight years.

"It is pretty amazing how different everything is," he said over the weekend from his locker at the far end of the home clubhouse at Nationals Park, one of the only things that hasn't changed. "The organization. Baseball. My career path. Me as a person. Everything is completely different than it was back then.

"We weren't very good. I was young, still establishing myself, playing a different position. Now I'm married, two kids. It's kind of funny how different everything is. But I think it kind of shows you how much stuff can change. You've just got to keep going."

Zimmerman has kept going, through good-but-not-great individual seasons, through injuries that sidelined him for months at a time and forced his move across the diamond to first base, through the depths of a 103-loss season by the Nationals, the ascension to the first of three division championships and then the disappointment of three first-round playoff exits.

And thanks to a convergence of good health and slight adjustments to his swing, Zimmerman at last finds himself back atop the mountain. He didn't just make it back to the All-Star Game for the first time in eight years. He did so as the owner of the league's third-highest batting average and slugging percentage, not to mention 19 homers and 63 RBIs, stats that earned him the starting nod at perhaps the deepest position in the majors.

All of a sudden, nobody's talking about the $100 million extension the Nationals gave him back in 2012, one that runs through at least 2019 and often in recent seasons has been viewed as an albatross for the organization. Nobody's talking about Zimmerman's job as an everyday player being on tenuous ground, or his spot in the heart of the lineup being shaky.

Those views, prevalent as they might have been, almost always came from the outside. Inside the clubhouse and the front office on South Capitol Street, support for Zimmerman never disappeared.

"Nobody likes to go through tough times, but it's a lot easier to go through tough times when you have good people around you," he said. "Obviously my family helped a lot. But the guys in here and the guys in the organization that I've known for 13 years now, when I was not performing like I should have and I was getting injured, I never really felt their confidence waver. And that really helped me."

As did that family. The last time he was an All-Star, Zimmerman did know Heather Downen, but the two weren't yet a couple. Eight years later, Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman are happily married, living in suburban Virginia with their two daughters.

A healthy balance between work and family has been a critical part of this journey.

"I've always felt like I've done a good job separating baseball with off-the-field stuff," Zimmerman said. "I've never been the guy who takes it home with me. Obviously when you fail or don't come through, nobody likes to do that. But once I left here, it was over. A lot of people need family to separate that. I guess I felt like I could do that before. But now the family just takes it to another level. You go home, play with the kids. It's a lot easier to escape when you have more important things in your life."

It's also a lot easier to be successful on the diamond when you're surrounded by the kind of talent the Nationals now tout.

Zimmerman was one of only three members of the 2009 Nationals who hit more than 10 home runs, along with Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham. John Lannan was the only member of the rotation to win more than five games or sport an ERA better than 4.44. Ron Villone, a 39-year-old journeyman, led the bullpen with 63 appearances.

These days, Zimmerman is one of four Nationals with a chance to hit 30 homers, drive in 100 runs and score 100 runs, along with fellow All-Stars Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy plus Anthony Rendon. Max Scherzer is starting tonight's Midsummer Classic and to date has posted better numbers than he did last year when he won the Cy Young Award. Strasburg is participating in Miami as well, the third All-Star appearance for the No. 1 pick of the 2009 draft.

Zimmerman isn't the face of the franchise anymore. He's one of the faces among a roster loaded with star power the likes of which seemed awfully implausible eight years ago.

"I always thought this market and this city - if you could build a good organization - I always thought people would want to come here to play," he said. "It's a cool city. There's stuff that you can do here that you can't do anywhere else. It's kind of a big city without being New York. ... I always thought it was an inviting place to play. We just had to get decent so that free agents would want to come here. And once you get to that point, have a couple good years, then I think it snowballs from there."

Consider that one of the few things Zimmerman did accurately foresee. His own personal baseball and life journey? Not as much.

Which has made this season, and this long-awaited return trip to the All-Star Game, particularly meaningful to the 32-year-old who should enjoy this one more than the last one.

"That's the beautiful thing about sports," Zimmerman said. "I play baseball, so I'm biased, but I think that's why baseball, I say it all the time, it equates to life in certain ways. It's not an easy sport. There's a lot of failure. You have to continue to do it every single day.

"Football, you have a bad game, you get a week to recover and make adjustments. Here, you have a bad game or you go through a rough stretch, you've got to keep running out there. Which is similar to everyday life for people. They have to grind it out. Whether they have a tough job, two jobs, have to take care of their family. You never know what's going to happen."