Well, early on in this 2005 Major League Baseball season, one thing is certain. The Washington Nationals are one team that most definitely knows how to make an entrance. Last week when they opened their season in Philly with a three game set, the bats came out hot, and the relief pitching saved the day as they took two of three from their division rivals. Tonight, after a week and a half on the road, they made their capital city debut as they took on the Diamondbacks at RFK Stadium.

The night was electric. That’s what I heard at least, I didn’t go. Hell, I couldn’t have gone if I had wanted to, as tickets for the opening match were going for around $250 a pop. It’s been a long time for baseball in the D.C. area, and the folks around here were apparently willing to pay handsomely to see it. It dominated the airwaves on my ride home from work, and it was all over the television when I got back home.

And for good reason. The Nats gave the people of D.C. and opening night to remember, as Livan Hernandez took a 1-hitter into the 9th inning and Vinny Castilla was a single away from hitting for the cycle, which would have been the second time in as many weeks that a National had done that, as Brad Wilkerson did it in the opening series last week.

Another thing is for sure. Washingtonians can make any even larger than life. They bring a mix of nostalgia and modern day hoopla to the major events that happen in the city that is unparralleled anywhere. Dubya resumed what used to be an annual tradition by throwing out the first pitch. Charlie Brotman, the 77-year-old public address announcer who called Senators games before they left for Texas, took his place back in front of the microphone, and proclaimed, “Baseball is back, and happy days are here again!” There was an F-16 flyover, there were fireworks, and there was a general excitement in the air that is usually reserved for Redskins games and political rallies.

I know the pull of the game has already gotten to me. I was able to swing tickets from a friend, and I’ll be in left field on Monday night, as the Nats take on the Florida Marlins. If you have a chance, make sure and watch for me, I’ll be standing next to the guy that’s holding a sign proclaiming, “You’ve Been Nationalized!”

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.

Just a couple of notes for those reading the pages over the holidays. I had meant to get to all of this much, much sooner, but with a pretty hectic schedule, and all of my free time going to following the Ole Miss coaching search, most of this stuff had been put on hold. Until now.

I don’t have a lot of time to be on the computer, spending the holidays in Jackson and Oxford, because there are a lot of places to go, and people to see and things to do (and when I do have a chance to get online, it’s probably on my mom’s slow ass dial-up, which isn’t worth trying for the time it takes to do anything). I do however, have these three nuggets of info that I’m passing along.

First off, the picture above is something that I have been working on for a little while now. Quite a while back, very early in the season, I gave my mother some pictures of Rebel players to be autographed. The thinking was to take those pictures, along with the pictures from football game weekends of our burgeoning little Rebel Club, and to create one large collage of pictures to be framed, as kind of a gift to myself for putting up with all of you people. Just kidding. Anyhow, I had so many pictures that turned out well, that to put them all into a collage individually would have taken a picture frame so large that it would have covered an entire wall. So I created the poster above, and personally, I think it came out wonderfully. So well in fact, that if there is any interest among friends and/or family, that I will be thinking about printing out posterized copies for all involved/interested. The original image is 12.5 inches by 12.5 inches, and if you would like one, you should let me know.

Also, I’ve created a Ole Miss Football highlight video for the year, just like I did last year. I had originally decided to do this and then stopped because I was having such a hard time coming up with material, and because of the disinterest that I had based on the results of the season. However, I got back at it a few days ago, and finished it up, and I think it turned out alright. It’s a little different this year, in that I was able to put in a few more video clips, and I added some personal pictures of a few of us tailgating, but overall, I like, so that’s all that really matters to me. You can find it here, or you can right click on the picture above, and save the link to your computer. You may have some problems streaming it, so you may HAVE TO right click and save it to your hard drive, I’m not sure. And it’s a rather large file, but I feel like it’s worth it.

So, in summary, enjoy the video, and if you want a copy of the picture, let me know. Oh, and have a good holiday season, whatever holiday you’re celebrating.

That’s right folks, it’s that time of year again. OM-LSU game week. The week when the rivalry intensifies to epic proportions, and the Ole Miss faithful, upon coming into contact will LSU’s best and brightest, whether it be in Oxford or Baton Rouge, suddenly have an enormous craving for a deep fried combination of cornmeal and manufactured meat product on a stick.

That’s right. Corn Dogs.

In one of the oldest and most perplexing twists of fate on this, God’s green Earth, It has been noted that LSU’s fans consistently smell of the golden fried treat. Yes, all of them. Some people believe that the LSU fanbase is the worst in the SEC, and possibly in nation, in terms of the way they treat opposing fans who travel to Red Stick to watch their alma maters go toe to toe with the Tigahs. I’ve heard everything from bourbon bottles being thrown at the visitors section, to grandmothers in purple and gold giving the bird and spitting on opposing fans. Me? I don’t buy it. Quite the opposite.

I think that LSU fans are some of the best in the SEC, if not the entire landscape of college football. Everytime that I’ve been down to Baton Rouge for a football game, I’ve been treated nicely, and wished a good time, and a good game. I’ve had food shared with me, drink shared with me, and good times and good conversations with an overwhelming majority of the purple and gold clad fanbase. And there simply is no better place to watch a football game. Anywhere.

That’s why when I travel down to Baton Rouge this weekend to attend what I’m sure will be another great clash between the Rebels and the Tigahs, I’ll be going with a secondary mission. In my attempt to dispell the myth of an ugly, mean, and unruly LSU fanbase, I’ll be talking with and taking pictures with as many LSU fans as possible, and when I get back from the trip I’ll be posting on it. I’m really hoping that I can open some eyes with this one, because many people won’t even go to Baton Rouge to watch a game because of what they’ve heard about the fans, and it’s really causing a lot of people to miss out on a must-see college football atmosphere.

And the whole corndog thing? I think it’s a plus. There are definitely worse things to smell like.

Unless you’re blind or a moron, or sports just isn’t your bag, then you’ve already heard today that Major League baseball has decided to move the Montreal Expos to our great Nation’s Capitol, starting in the 2005 season. The team will play in RFK stadium next year and for the two seasons after that, while a brand new stadium is built for them. The word around town, in the papers, and on the news, and in the radio is one of mixed emotions. A few people are concerned that the proposed location for the stadium, in Southeast D.C. on the Anacostia River, as well as the price tag of $440 million, which the city will fund itself, will hurt Washington more than it will help. Most others, myself included, couldn’t be happier about the decision. Talk radio, not just sports talk radio, mind you, but all of the talk radio programs, have been talking D.C. baseball and nothing else non-stop all day. Finally, the citizens of Washington D.C. won’t have to drive up a cramped and crowded interstate for an hour to Baltimore to see America’s Pastime. And it gives me a chance to back a baseball team that I’m really excited about.

I’ve been a Mets fan for as long as I can remember. I’ve never been a really big fan though; I’ve always just had a passing interest. I didn’t sit up past my bedtime when I was nine watching the ‘86 Mets beat the Red Sox or anything like that. But when I was a kid, Jackson was home to the Jackson Mets, the N.Y. Mets AA farm club. We went to a few games, and I think that one day I just decided that the Mets were going to be my favorite baseball team. It’s hard to have a “passing interest” in a team though when the team sucks, as the Mets have for many, many, MANY years now. So I’m excited about the Expos/Senators/Grays/Whatevers coming to town, because it will give me a chance to get a fresh start, right along with the team, and follow them from the get go. I’m sure I’ll catch a lot of hell about this from my friends over the whole thing. I caught a lot of hell for saying that I was sort of taking a liking to the Redskins, and for playing with the ‘Skins when I play ESPN NFL 2005 on the Playstation. “What, you’re not a Saints fan anymore?”, they say. “You’re a traitor, that’s what you are”, is another good one. But I feel like this is different. I’ve never been to a Mets game. I don’t read Mets message boards like I do Saints message boards, and I don’t follow the team on an every day basis. Hitching my wagon to the new D.C. team is a way for me to enjoy baseball again, outside of a fantasy league. And it’s not like I’m a bandwagon fan, really. It’s the freakin’ Expos for crying out loud. So I’m making a fresh, new start. And I can’t wait for the D.C.-Atlanta series next year. The Braves will be our bitches! Whoever we are.

I say “whoever we are” because the biggest topic on talk radio today was what the name of the team was going to be when they moved. Not the financing, or who the ownership group was going to be, or if the city council would approve the move, or the new stadium, or if the team would be successful next year, or if they would even be able to complete the move in a single offseason. None of that. What’s really important was, “What are they going to be called?” The three front runners right now are the Expos, the Senators, and the Grays. The Expos would be easy, and cheap, because they could just wear the same uniforms and stuff from last year. But a lot of people don’t like it because they feel like the team needs a new start, and a new name should be included in that, and I tend to agree. The other two names have a very old school feel to them. The Senators is the name of the old Washington team, and to bring them back should mean to bring back the old name too. The only problem with that is that the Texas Rangers, who used to be the Washington Senators, own the rights to the name “Washington Senators”. Of course, Dubya Bush is the past owner of that team, so there’s been a lot of rumors goingn around that something could be worked out. We’ll see, though. The last name is the Grays, in honor of and in reference to the old Negro League team that played in the area. I like it, but I don’t know if it fits to well. I mean, “Washington Grays” just doesn’t really roll of my tongue, but I don’t know about you. I’m partial to the Senators, but I guess only time will tell.

More importantly though, is that there has been a lot of people calling in to various talk shows with there own ideas for names. These suggestions, good or bad, have started a lot of conversation in the area, and I think a few of them are really worth sharing. So here are five of the Best and Worst names for the new team that I have seen or heard so far…

5 Worst Names

1. Washington Metros - reminds me of metrosexual. Not good.
2. Washington River Rats - Yeah, lets play up the nastiness of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers.
3. D.C. Filibusters - Riiiiiight.
4. Washington Traffic Jams - Has too much of a basketball feel to it
5. D.C. Snipers - Yes, someone actually suggested this. Not quite enough time passed to make jokes, I think.

5 Best Names

1. Washington Senators - Classic, old school
2. Washington Greys - See above
3. D.C. Comics - stupid, but very, very funny
4. D.C. Freedom - Corny, but people seem to like it
5. Washington Monuments - Hilarious, Can’t you just see the uniforms?