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Battle of the Beltways Circa 1992
By Jamie Mottram | May 17, 2012
This year’s BATTLE OF THE BELTWAYS™ starts tomorrow at Nats Park with the first-place O’s and the first-place Nats squaring off. This series is always weird. As a fan of both teams I don’t like rooting against either. Now that they’re both doing well I’m treating this three-game set as an exhibition of sorts. Hopefully no one gets swept.
I come by that indifference honestly, being a baseball fan born and raised in Northern Virginia from 1977 to 2008. When baseball returned to D.C. in ‘05, just minutes away, I instantly became a Nats fan. I think we all did. But for the years preceding that, this is what baseball looked like (via a 1992 Orioles program found at my Grandma’s house last week; cover below):
That’s a full-page ad from WDCA-TV, which kind of escapes my memory, where Home Team Sports reigns supreme. Some key takeaways:
– That’s a really big stadium. No one would hit any dingers there, except for maybe 1996 Brady Anderson and now Adam Jones.
– Also, WHERE IS EUTAW STREET?
– I’m pretty sure this map is not to scale.
– Nice of WDCA to include Canada (and the Poconos!).
– No baseball was played at the Cap Centre, just ice skating and stuff.
– No regular-season baseball at RFK either, just playoffs I guess.
– Considering approx. half of the illustration consists of the Capital Beltway, the point here is that D.C. and Northern Virginia were O’s country, which is probably why I was at Camden, buying a program and tucking it away to be found after all these years.
Topics: Brady Anderson, Nationals, Orioles | 60 Comments »
May 17th, 2012 at 11:31 AM
If I recall correctly, they used to host occasional pre-season exhibition games at RFK, hence the “no regular season” reference.
May 17th, 2012 at 11:37 AM
There’s also no parking on the west side of Camden Yards, that’s Russell St!
May 17th, 2012 at 12:22 PM
That’s actually a pretty cool program. Nice of them to point out that there’s no baseball in DC, though. According to Angelos, there are no real baseball fans in DC either. Imagine how much better childhood would have been if you were able to take the metro to a MLB game.
Fuck Angelos, and the Orioles.
May 17th, 2012 at 12:39 PM
The Orioles and Red Sox apparently played an exhibition game at RFK in 1992. Thus the “no regular season baseball” label.
May 17th, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Agreed. You can live in a world in which being both an Orioles fan and a Nationals fan isn’t mutually exclusive.
I happen to live in the real world, however. A world in which Angelos was the main reason DC was never seriously considered for a new team: (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13386-2004Jun28.html)
Who owns the Nationals TV right? The Orioles. Make sense to anyone? Does any other team have this deal? Nossir.
Here’s a particular gem:
“I know it’s a difficult proposal, but it’s something I must insist on,” said Angelos. “I won’t accept a new franchise that’s going to draw crowds away from the Orioles. We were here first, after all. Therefore, I’m willing to allow the Expos to move into town, but the new stadium shouldn’t have any seats. And I don’t want any of the ‘standing room only’ bullshit either. Nothing. If they’re gonna play, they’re gonna play to an empty crowd. Don’t worry. It’s not that bad. We’ve been doing it for years.”
Angelos has been opposed to sharing the DC market with another franchise since the idea first came up in 2002. The Orioles’fanbase has always included the nation’s capital, and a new team would mean diminished returns for Angelos’ club. However, the plan to relocate the Expos to Washington picked up steam and it soon became clear that Angelos would have to accept a compromise. (http://www.thebrushback.com/angelos_full.htm)
Look, Griffith was offered the opportunity to veto the St Louis Browns to Baltimore move (same league even) and didn’t. He welcomed the Orioles.
Angelos thinks the Orioles have always been around (or 1954… whatever). Angelos thinks the Nationals are the first team in DC (another Nationals teams was a founding member of the American League… whatever).
Fuck Angelos and the Orioles.
May 17th, 2012 at 1:51 PM
Fuck. The. Orioles.
May 17th, 2012 at 1:53 PM
what horseydeucey said but still, some pretty cool old stuff
May 17th, 2012 at 2:02 PM
@Walter Johnson and @horseydeucey are scholars and gentlemen.
It’s weird that a DC TV station was trolling DC like that then. Then again, there are still “Washingtonians” who love the O’s and hate the Nats for some reason. Maybe one of them commissioned that work.
Peter Angelos and the Baltimore Orioles are anti-DC. It is a matter of public record. The MASN “deal” is a corrupt bargain that rewarded a coward who a.) was spiteful to another city b.) did not believe in his own city. Why any Washingtonian continues to support him continues to be a big mystery to me.
May 17th, 2012 at 2:41 PM
It’s weird that so many people have jumped ship on the O’s and down right hate them. Just cause Angelos is a douche? Yes the MASN deal is definitely ridiculous, but before ‘05 who were people cheering for? Growing up in MD in the 80’s and early 90’s, there were the O’s and the ‘Skins. That’s it. I’ll cheer for the Nats all day, except when they are playing the O’s. Gotta stay true to the roots. Those who have turned into 100% Nats people and hate the O’s remind me a hell of a lot like Ravens fans who ditched the ‘Skins. Having two baseball teams that you cheer for is perfectly acceptable. Two football teams? GFY.
HTTR
May 17th, 2012 at 2:55 PM
Never was an O’s fan. So no ship-jumping there. I did have a team. But the deal was always once we got a team, it was over. And it is.
May 17th, 2012 at 3:21 PM
I’m sure im not the only one that didnt really like the orioles growing up. I wouldn’t say I hated them but as soon as I got older and knew what was going on behind the scenes I did
May 17th, 2012 at 3:34 PM
Why don’t you do like the Post and stop blogging about this red-headed step child of a team. They ARE NOT DC Sports.
May 17th, 2012 at 4:18 PM
horseydeucey Says:
May 17th, 2012 at 2:55 PM
Never was an O’s fan. So no ship-jumping there. I did have a team. But the deal was always once we got a team, it was over. And it is.
I am in the same boat as horseydeucey. I was never an O’s fan. I cheered for the Red Sox (half my family is from New England and still resides in Mass). The day the Nats came to town, I sold all of my Sox stuff on ebay, and have been 100% behind the Nats since.
May 17th, 2012 at 4:20 PM
@AATH
It’d be acceptable to cheer for the O’s too if not for the MASN deal. Under the Angelos “stewardship” most Nats games were kept off DC area cable systems. That bad behavior shouldn’t be rewarded by any Washingtonian, yet so many continue to do so.
@matt
It took the Post several years to dump Angelos. WTOP still hasn’t.
May 17th, 2012 at 4:23 PM
You guys are missing the real story here, which is Brady’s royal blue double-breasted suit.
May 17th, 2012 at 5:20 PM
The Nats being good coinciding with my split fandom has me super confused and self-loathing. I’m with the “stay true to your roots” crowd so the O’s will always have a piece of me. On the other hand, I’m with the “civic pride” crowd so have been training myself to like the Nats.
I’m organically becoming more of a Nats fan. But now I feel like a dirty fair-weather fan. Do I like them more because they’re winning? I tell myself NO, because the O’s are winning too, but I don’t care as much. Which means “oh shit, I’m actually ditching my team, which has never happened before.” The latter feeling is just as bizarre and dirty.
Does anyone else have this internal debate?
May 17th, 2012 at 5:55 PM
Pretty much, yeah.
May 17th, 2012 at 6:08 PM
I’ve been to both stadiums and the universe didn’t rip itself apart, believe it or not.
May 17th, 2012 at 8:11 PM
I was an O’s fan as a kid. (my dad grew up in DC and switched to the Indians after ‘71; not BAL) I never got the Indian thing. Only place back then you could find an Indians hat was Kings Dominion. (locals know what I’m talking about)
I mentioned the other day that there is a twisted irony facing Baltimore-Washington and that is that the owners of each pro sports team have made it incredibly easy to determine which football/baseball team is the fresh new cool team and which one is the “used to be really really cool team but now is a douche team run by a douche” i.e. Redskins/Orioles.
Long story short- Angelos and Snyder are certified douche bags and the only thing they have going for them is loyalty, statues honoring the past, and the Joe Gibbs Bubble. POW
May 17th, 2012 at 8:46 PM
I think I’ve made it pretty clear how I feel about the Orioles.
But I don’t feel as strongly about Orioles fans in DC. What I do assume about DC-based Orioles fans however is that you lot don’t go to many games (for either team). If you did, you wouldn’t be on the fence. Either that or your not really fans of either team… you just like the idea of rooting for both teams when you happen to catch highlights on SportsCenter… or your comfortable enough with the logos to don a ballcap.
No one in Baltimore is going to wake up one day asking, “where did that guy from DC who went to maybe three games a season go?” The owner of the Orioles has made it clear over and over that you don’t exist, and that if you do actually exist he’s going to make it near impossible for you to connect with the Nationals.
What did all the Baltimoreans do when the Colts left? It’s my sense that not many became Skins fans. And if they did, statistically zero stayed with the Skins when the Browns became the Ravens.
Go to Nats games. The conversion may take awhile. It may feel funny to you diehard Orioles fans. But it will happen.
You cannot… repeat cannot… be a true fan of multiple teams. If you think I’m wrong, it’s only because I differ with you in my definition of what a ‘fan’ is.
May 17th, 2012 at 8:47 PM
*you’re*
May 17th, 2012 at 10:36 PM
Fuck people who say fuck the Orioles.
You know whose owner is a douche? Most teams’. Your team’s owner is. Fact. Bad argument. If you’re this insecure about your town’s crappy track record with baseball, just quietly off yourself.
The reason it’s hard for most locals under the age of a zillion to really embrace the Nats — aside from their new-yet-somehow-shitty stadium — doesn’t have anything to do with the team. It’s the obnoxious geezers like you who have an inferiority complex (really? decrepit Baltimore, of all places?)…just shut up and maybe people won’t be so ashamed to be associated with the local NL fanbase.
May 18th, 2012 at 12:57 AM
Awww. It’s ok little guy.
Help me out with something. There’s this old Oriole player whose first name I can’t remember. All I can picture is his last name since his most famous play was facing the wall looking up in the stands at Jeffrey Meier… something Tarasco. Hmmm what was his name? Oh well, not important. It’s just the last time us geezers remember the Orioles being relevant.
You see, the Nationals were owned by baseball until after they came to DC. Before that, they were raided every year. Randy johnson, Pedro Martinez, Vladimer Guerrero, Larry Walker, John Wetteland (just to name a few). Hell, MLB wouldn’t even allow them to expand to playoff strength roster the first year in DC.
What’s your team’s excuse? No wait, check that. What’s your excuse? To me, it’s not surprising to see an orioles fan so flip about suicide. The organization is certainly a shining example of this. How many former and current orioles showed up to suicide Mike Flanagan’s funeral? Or are you too young and hip to know who Mike Flanagan was?
Stay angry, my friend. You have every reason to be.
May 18th, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Yeah, I know Tony Tarasco. He’s that guy the Nats hired to un-teach Bryce Harper how to hit.
And we all know Flanny…he’s the guy you were watching win games in the decades when The District couldn’t support a baseball team.
Omg! Irrelevant 90s Expos history! JOHN WETTELAND!
It’s graspers like this that keep people away.
May 18th, 2012 at 8:20 AM
With all due respect horsey, invoking the Mike Flanagan suicide is really low. I know that it’s not indicative of the Washington Nationals’ fan base, nor do I think that any rational human being (yourself included) truly harbors thoughts like that. As for the funeral, nobody showed up to it because it was a private funeral according to the wishes of the Flanagan family. I suspect that some of Mike’s closer friends from the Orioles such as Jim Palmer might have been there, but I’m not sure. If the Orioles weren’t told when the funeral was and where, how exactly are they supposed to attend? I’m not saying that the Flanagan family was wrong not to include the O’s either…they did everything in accordance to their wishes.
Long story short, half of my family’s from Baltimore and half from Washington (although even the half from DC has strong Baltimore ties). Growing up in the 1980’s, there were two teams: the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Redskins. So when each city got a team in the other sport, I had a decision to make just like most people. As an Italian-American I was taught early on that loyalty is the most valuable quality; so go figure who I still root for to this day. I disagreed with Angelos blocking baseball from coming to DC however, but what was I supposed to do? Stop rooting for the team I grew up with because the owner was a jerk? The same with the Redskins; Snyder’s a prick, but my love of the Redskins/Orioles is greater than my dislike of Snyder/Angelos. I don’t see the Orioles as a “home team” in DC however, nor should the Skins be considered as such in Baltimore. I have a bit of an identity crisis I guess because I live in NOVA but I talk like a Batlimorean hon! Nevertheless, I don’t begrudge DC for getting baseball or former Oriole fans that switched to the Nats. While I myself believe in loyalty I do understand a team moving closer to your home and switching to root for them. However anyone that formerly was an Oriole fan and now hates the O’s; that I question. If you switched to the Nats but still pull for the O’s on the side (like I do with the Ravens), I get that and I understand it. However if you suddenly hate the O’s, I think you’re not being true to yourself.
As an example; I was in a bar awhile back and I overheard someone back-mouthing the Birds and everything that they stand for. The guy went so far as to say that Baltimore shouldn’t have a team. Five minutes later he was saying that Cal Ripken Jr. was his favorite baseball player of all time, and he’d love to see the Nats have a “Cal Ripken day.” When I questioned him on that he said that Cal was as much a part of Washington baseball as he was Baltimore. I suppose my point is that fandom isn’t an a la carte menu where you can pick and choose parts of different things that you like. If you hate the Orioles and everything they mean, you have to hate it all. It’s okay to respect Cal and what he did, but don’t try to make him a part of the Nationals or DC baseball since you liked him as a kid. Cal is synonymous with the Orioles and the city of Baltimore…period.
May 18th, 2012 at 9:03 AM
Douche owner or not, I’ve been an O’s fan for as long as I can remember just like my Dad has been since as long as he can remember. I can’t ever see us wearing another hat. Just like I would never put on a Ravens jersey.
May 18th, 2012 at 9:10 AM
I root for the Orioles and Nationals and will never agree with people who try to say that’s a bad thing. Or not allowed. Or whatever. An awful owner isn’t nearly enough to strip away a lifetime of love for a team. That would assume sports fandom runs on rational thinking, which obviously it doesn’t.
May 18th, 2012 at 9:26 AM
I agree with Chris. As an O’s fan, I’d like to see the Nats succeed. It doesn’t make me an awful human for wanting to see both teams do well.
May 18th, 2012 at 9:30 AM
I’d be indifferent to Orioles if not for the TV situation. The Nats are forced to subsidize the Orioles. The Orioles kept the Nats off TV for almost two seasons. Angelos/Orioles acted in bad faith out of cowardice, so they deserve to fail.
May 18th, 2012 at 9:39 AM
Well said Domenic. I totally understand folks whoh picked up the Nats when they came to town, but that does not force you to hate the team of your youth.
Go O’s.
May 18th, 2012 at 9:45 AM
Let us stop focusing on the hate and instead discuss our mutual hatred of other teams filling up our ballparks.
Also, for that very reason I will respect your ballpark this week and not attend the Nats/O’s series. If I did, however, despite my rooting interest north on 95, I would not wear my team’s colors. I hate it when teams do that to me, when I felt like I was an outsider at the Yard at Boston games, I think you guys can relate.
May 18th, 2012 at 10:12 AM
I am a Northern Virginia resident who grew up cheering for the Os and made the trek several times to 33rd Steet. The ‘89 “Why Not” band of misfits got me hooked onto the team. The Davey Johnson years (96-97) were also memorable to me. I think it’s karma that the Os haven’t tasted post-season since the day Angelos fired Davey.
Admittedly, after years of watching Angelos running that club into the ground I welcomed the Nats with open arms when they arrived in DC. It was a slow process but I am now 100% converted to the Nats. Perhaps if Angelos had treated DC more fairly and had he not ruined the Os after years of mismanagement I would be a dual fan.
May 18th, 2012 at 10:50 AM
For those who abandoned the O’s cause of their owner … would you do the same to the Redskins?
May 18th, 2012 at 11:11 AM
Just throwing it out there but did Jack Kent Cooke ever try to block a football team from coming to Baltimore?
May 18th, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Absolutely not. I will always root for the home team.
I hate to say it but I’m a former o’s fan, but I didn’t know any better as a kid. I did however find it strange that we had to drive past RFK to get to Memorial Stadium.. I couldn’t understand why we didn’t have a team of our own. I was more of a baseball fan, and they were the closest thing I had to a home team.
I stopped rooting for the o’s (and actually started to root against them) in 2004, when talk of the Expos coming to DC really started to heat up. I was born and raised in DC, and my father was a Senators fan. I can somewhat understand o’s fans from Fairfax, Montgomery or PG County sticking with the o’s, but not really. In 2004 I dropped the o’s regardlerdless if DC actually did land a baseball team. At that point, there was no way in hell I could continue to support them.
I support the Nats with all my heart, and a lot of my money. I despise the o’s now, mainly because of angelos and his fight to keep baseball out of DC. I supported his team my whole life, and he paid back the favor by telling me I wasn’t a real baseball fan, yet tried to retain my support by keeping baseball out of DC even though everyone knew DC deserved a team. Even after we have a team, the o’s are forced down our throat, and the MASN deal is just flat out unjust.
Perhaps if angelos wasn’t such a fucking dirty prick the o’s would be a very distant second team, and I might go up to baltimore a couple of times a year to catch a game and see the city. But he is a dirty fucking prick, so I wont.
Fuck angelos, and the orioles.
(and fuck people who say fuck people who say fuck the Orioles)
May 18th, 2012 at 11:21 AM
I don’t think you have a strong enough opinion about this, Walter.
May 18th, 2012 at 11:21 AM
@Chris: obviously they wouldn’t. The owner excuse is post hoc rationalization for people who can’t sack up and admit they are ditching thier team for whatever other reason unfounded in rational thinking. Which as you point out is behind it all. And that’s ok.
Also, I’m impressed you are at peace with rooting for both. Begging the question: who will you root for this weekend? How can it be any fun if you don’t pick a side?
May 18th, 2012 at 11:32 AM
“With all due respect horsey, invoking the Mike Flanagan suicide is really low.”
The reason I brought it up, was that I read an interesting comment from someone else. You might have missed it?
It said, “just quietly off yourself.” Being told to commit suicide tends to chill the mood a little bit, don’t you think? I figured since we’re talking baseball and suicide and everything, why be hypothetical. It’s a little easy for internet tough guys to talk shit when we forget that this stuff happens in real life. And it ain’t pretty. Ever.
And Chris. Would I abandon the Skins because of the owner? Not a chance. But the question isn’t relevant. You grow up in a major city without football (yet once had it), only to have the next closest city’s football team try to block a new team in your city for years and tell me how you’d feel.
May 18th, 2012 at 11:45 AM
@ThisGuy: I am rooting for two things this weekend: a 2-1 split and no injuries. Since the Nats are the home team, I suppose they should be on the series-winning side.
May 18th, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Horseydeucey: I dunno, I’d probably grow up rooting for the team in the next closet city, like I did w/ the O’s.
May 18th, 2012 at 11:51 AM
So Ravens fans should despise the Redskins and wish ill will on their fans, players and anything affiliated with them as well. Angelos did what every other owner has done and will do, leverage the league to give them a ton of money because they can. Get over it.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-04-07/news/1997097085_1_jack-kent-cooke-redskins-john-kent
May 18th, 2012 at 11:57 AM
1. Team trading/ditching is unacceptable.
2. It is okay to root for two teams as long as there is a hierarchy (1. O’s, 2. Nats (I was an O’s fan first))
3. The teams are in different leagues, unless the sweetest world series in history happens this is basically all moot.
4. The only people who should go fuck themselves are people who used to be ’skins fans and are no longer.
5. Combining the two teams would make for a serious World Series contender.
May 18th, 2012 at 11:58 AM
@horsey I understand your point, however there’s a big difference between someone saying something like that on a message board and having it actually happen. In Flanagan’s case we’re talking about a real person that obviously had issues (none of which were caused by baseball, the Orioles, MASN, Angelos, or anyone else) that were very deeply seeded. For me Mike Flanagan was a pitcher that I saw play at Memorial Stadium and later an analyst I head on HTS and MASN. I never knew the man, nor did I ever meet him. But the real victims of his death are the people that knew and loved him such as his wife, daughters, and even folks like Jim Palmer who was his best friend. I’ll never forget watching O’s Xtra the night he died and seeing Palmer and Rick Dempsey sobbing their way through the telecast. That aside as I said, there’s a big difference between saying that on a message board and invoking a real-life situation that’s still very fresh in minds of a lot of people.
May 18th, 2012 at 12:06 PM
@WFY Let’s be clear; I don’t agree that one owner should have the TV rights to another. However Angelos didn’t not make the games available to anyone. In the infant years of MASN there were many cable systems that did not make the network available on basic cable. It wasn’t Angelos that did this, it was the likes of Comcast, Cox, etc.
In my opinion MASN does an excellent job of covering both teams. A lot of Nats fans like to complain about the talent on their side; I agree that the Oriole announcers are better. (On the radio side honestly I think that Charlie & Dave are the better duo.) However keep in mind that the team chooses it’s broadcasters, not the network. The mics and the graphics may well say MASN, however Carpenter, Santangelo, and company are all employees of the Washington Nationals. However both teams get equal coverage on the mid-Atlantic Sports Report, both teams have their own Saturday AM show, etc. I suppose my point is that if there was next-to-no Nats’ coverage I could understand people’s frustration over this. However while it’s not right for one owner to make money off of another team, shouldn’t the point be that Nationals’ fans get to see the games? If I had to choose between watching the Orioles on a station owned by the Steinbrenner family each night or not at all, I’d take the TV in a heartbeat.
May 18th, 2012 at 12:11 PM
@MarylandDan
You have not been paying attention. Angelos did more than oppose it. He almost single handedly prevented the existence of the Nats, and disrespected/alienated DC baseball fans in the process. He also CURRENTLY controls the Nationals’ TV rights and is CURRENTLY directly profiting off of the Nats. totally different situations.
May 18th, 2012 at 12:20 PM
He did what every other owner would do. These guys did not get to be millionaires and billionaires giving up on a fight and losing revenue sources. Angelos like all other owners looked out for his investment first. Do I dislike how he runs the team, hell yeah but I am not going to start rooting for another team because of it. Sorry I fought with kids in little league for the #8 jersey, grew side burns because of Brady and can imitate the Mussina look to 1st from the stretch perfectly. You can switch sides but that doesn’t make the rest of us wrong for continuing to root for a team that we have loved since birth.
May 18th, 2012 at 12:28 PM
False. Clark Griffith did not do what any other owner would do.
Cannot be repeated enough. “Griffith agreed to let the Orioles set up shop in Baltimore.” (http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-05-15/news/bs-ed-beer-baseball-20120515_1_baltimore-beer-silver-bullet-high-school-baseball).
Understand that. You only have the Orioles to root for because the owner of the Senators had the chance to say no… and didn’t.
Here is an owner who did exactly the opposite of what you say “every other owner would do.” Beware of absolutes.
You are wrong.
May 18th, 2012 at 12:47 PM
I respect your Google game but come on bro your reaching back 60+ years, business and marketing concepts have changed a lot since then. Why should the new owner of the Astros get a sweet deal because they have to change leagues? They shouldn’t but they are because that is how it works “right now” and this isn’t 1954 so we can’t swap favorite tv shows over cold beers. So yes I am wrong that one owner didn’t care but my argument still stands, all of current owners would do exactly what Angelos did.
May 18th, 2012 at 12:48 PM
Preach it horsey
May 18th, 2012 at 12:52 PM
I think the money situation was a little different in the 50s as it is now. If Griffith had TV rights in the 50s, it would have been the same situation.
May 18th, 2012 at 1:44 PM
“I respect your Google game but come on bro your reaching back 60+ years, business and marketing concepts have changed a lot since then.”
You’re one of those people who sets the table then can’t accept the fact that the table was set wrong.
You brought it up, bro. Not me.
And TV rights had nearly nothing (notice how I stopped short of an absolute?) to do with this. Because Angelos HAS the TV rights. If it were about TV rights, and he was going to get them anyway, why the beef? The team wouldn’t have moved but for Angelos owning the TV rights. That was his compromise. Future Nationals revenue was the deal.
Remember when it was questioned whether or not the team would actually sign Strasburg? If you don’t, remember when it was questioned whether or not the team would actually sign Harper? It would have been much less of a question if the team had their own tv revenue. Listen, the deal Angelos agreed to, the bone that was thrown our way in DC, affects the Nationals… and not in a good way. This is why I will always root against that team.
I would think if any other team (since there isn’t a single one) had two tv revenue streams, the product on field would be superior. And it isn’t. The Orioles can’t even take advantage of the huge advantage they have.
I’m glad for Orioles fans the team is doing well. Honestly. But I say this with zero spite or malice. Don’t get too excited. Seasons are lost this early in the game… not won.
You’re always welcome at Nats park. Just leave the “OH!” and the Gooney Bird at the gate.
May 18th, 2012 at 1:45 PM
Nats fans are fake haters looking for something to whine about. Complaining about Tv rights and someone not wanting a team to suck up half of his market? WAHHH! The real hatred comes from O’s fans who have seen the team become a laughing stock or ineptitude and mismanagement for 14+ seasons.
May 18th, 2012 at 1:59 PM
Haha, ok terps.. you are a more qualified and justified hater. I think everyone can agree that angelos is a horrible piece of shit, for many reasons. PS go fuck yourself.
May 18th, 2012 at 4:47 PM
You got it, boss! And I wont make any apologies for my wild fantasies about hate-fucking Angelos while doing it either!
May 18th, 2012 at 5:53 PM
Okay, so Chris to answer your question, bad owners are not reason to switch teams.. @johnny blades- not all owners are douches. Case & point: Leonsis can probably kick my ass which decertifies him as a douche in my book.
Also, Steve Bishotti is pretty freakin cool too. Then there’s Green Bay where the City is the owner. I will agree though, that 90% probably qualify as a douche.
@hokiepokie the Why Not year was so awesome indeed.. Greg Otter Olsen.. Man what a breaking ball. Best summer as a kid definitely. Will never forget that Toronto series at the end…Sad..Oh well, Go Nats. Go Skins (despite EVERYTHING)
May 18th, 2012 at 9:27 PM
I grew up in MoCo and love my DC teams. I am a huge Skins and Wiz fan and support the DC teams for sports I don’t care much about like the Caps and the United. However I grew up an Orioles fan and remain so. The Nationals have no history but over time they may grow on me. However Nats vs O’s isn’t even close I’m always going to stay with the O’s.
May 19th, 2012 at 1:11 PM
When talking about how “graciously” the Senators’ owner “allowed” the Orioles to come to the region, you also have to remember that things were MUCH different in 1954. Most people have mentioned that TV rights was no big deal, which is true. However the world itself was a smaller place back then. My mother lived in Montgomery County and she always said that when they’d go back to Baltimore to visit relatives in the 50’s and 60’s it would be a whole day affair because it was such a “long trip.” In the early 60’s when the interstate highway system was being completed in earnest and the beltway was finished, it began to be a much shorter trip.
Why is this relevant? I suspect that the old Senators didn’t have any scientific studies done about where their fans came from or anything along those lines, but I would hesitate to say that very few people came down from Baltimore to see games due to the time investment to come to DC. (Plus Baltimore did have several versions of the Orioles prior to 1954 which were minor league or independent league teams.) So while there were regulations in place to protect territorial rights of teams an so forth, I’m not sure that the Orioles’ existence put a dent in the Senators’ attendance or fan base.
I don’t begrudge Washington for getting another team, however one could certainly understand how 2005 was a different time as opposed to 1954. Is it fair for Angelos to own the Nats’ rights? Probably not. However to not offer some sort of carrot would have also been blatantly unfair to Angelos to have not compensated him on some manner. People can sneer about it all they want, however on that end of things it’s not a matter of the fans having a team it’s a business situation. And business always boils down to the bottom line.
May 22nd, 2012 at 1:46 PM
[...] by the heated debate in the comments of this post, Mr. Irrelevant reader Pete Cullen offered up this essay on rooting for both the Orioles and [...]
May 22nd, 2012 at 4:51 PM
Domenic A. Vadala – then why don’t the Skins own a piece of the Ravens? Sorry pal, but that’s faulty logic.
August 10th, 2012 at 10:40 PM
I’m from Connecticut and grew up a Senators fan. When they left after the ‘71 season I was devastated and angry. Back in those days, the O’s always outdrew the Senators because, didn’t the Orioles have those four 20 game winners? The Orioles stole potential Senators fans because the former were so much better and won constantly, whereas the product in DC wasn’t all that good. The only good thing about the Orioles was that they were only one of two teams not to vote on allowing the Senators to move to Arlington, Texas.
I hate the Orioles despite their late hour attempt to keep the Senators in DC. Fuck Angelos and the Orioles.