Under normal circumstances, the World Series trophy — officially called the Commissioner’s Trophy — won by the Washington Nationals last fall would have been on display Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park. These are, of course, far from normal circumstances.

When I went walking around the ballpark around the time of the scheduled first pitch Thursday afternoon, lamenting the lack of a home opener, it didn’t occur to me to ask: Where’s the trophy?

On Thursday evening, Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo provided the answer.

Rizzo confirmed by text that a picture making the rounds on Twitter of the trophy sitting in a window of his townhouse is, in fact, real.

“In honor of Opening Day!” Rizzo said.

A great move. As I wrote Thursday, my walk around the ballpark ended up being kind of a downer. It just made me miss baseball more.

My normal “commute” to the ballpark, almost always by foot, takes me through the Navy Yard neighborhood, where Rizzo lives. I generally make it a point not to walk by Rizzo’s house, even though it’s on a pretty direct path home, because it just would seem weird. Sportswriters stalk front-office executives enough at the ballpark or arena. No need to stalk in the neighborhood!

But now I wish I had walked that way Thursday. The trophy seemed to lift the spirits of those who saw it. It’s a reminder that the Nationals are still champs and there’s still a banner to raise and rings to give out, whenever baseball — and everything else — finally returns.