Spring has roared in like a lion, and with that comes warmer weather, longer days, and of course baseball. And for the first time in a long time, the nation’s capital is celebrating the yearly beginning of the national pastime. And suprisingly enough, the Washington Nationals have come out of the starting gates as one of the hottest teams in baseball, taking two of three from the Phillies with suprisingly good pitching and timely hitting from players like Brad Wilkerson, who has already hit for the cycle.It’s an exciting time all around, but of course, with this being D.C., there are some problems, or some people complaining.
In this cast though I don’t think that it’s unwarranted. Since the season has started the Nationals have only been on television here in the DC metro area a single time. The Orioles however, have been on local stations three times already. That’s because Peter Angelos, the owner of the Orioles complained so much about this team being moved to the DC area, that Major League Baseball has been trying to do whatever it can to apease him since the decision was made. That includes signing a television deal with Angelos that includes a more Orioles games being played in the DC area than Nationals games. It also includes a rather large sum of money going to Angelos fro the television contract, a much larger sum than is normal in such deals.
Angelos is worried that with a new team in the DC area, the Orioles will lose a portion of their fanbase, as well as a portion of their revenues that is generally made from DC area residents making the short trip up to Baltimore during the spring and summer to see the Orioles play. He has a right to be worried to, because this outcome is inevitable. However, instead of whining and crying like a baby about it, and having Major League Baseball make special concessions to him, he might be served to actually put a competitive, entertaining product on the field. I’ve been up to Baltimore for a game. It’s fun, and the atmosphere is nice. I wouldn’t want to hold season tickets, though, because how much fun could it possibly be to watch a baseball team lose between 80 and 100 games year in and year out?
Washingtonians don’t seem to mind, though. The Nationals are in the paper, they’re on the nightly news, hell, they’re everywhere. This baseball team hasn’t even played a home game yet, and local residents are already talking about the possibility of making the playoffs. Everyone is excited about this team in this town, and they should be. I have friends who’ve bought season tickets, and it’s almost all they talk about. I’ve even been trying to pull their ears a little bit early on so that I may be able to procure some of their tickets later on down the road.
Baseball seems like something that even Washington, D.C. can’t screw up.
Note: The title of this post, “You’ve Been Nationalized!”, was blatantly ripped off from the same friend I spoke of in the post. He hopes to make it into a sign, which he will be carrying to every game he attends this summer. I just felt as if he should get credit where credit is due.
