When did the Washington Nationals move to the American League East?
The Nats are spending the weekend in Baltimore amid a 15-game, five-team swing through the division Washingtonians know well after a generation of following the Orioles.
Honestly, wasn’t it more fun to watch the Yankees and Red Sox (on public TV twice, no less) than National League games versus Houston and San Diego? Didn’t it just feel like going home again? This old divisional swing will even make Toronto seem nostalgic.
Washingtonians have always been AL fans from the start. Even when the Senators left town, locals merely transferred to the Orioles and remained in the AL. While everyone was ecstatic over the Nats’ arrival, NL opponents are a mixed bag.
It has been fun to see historic NL franchises like St. Louis, Los Angeles and San Francisco while some New Yorkers want to see the Mets. Watching Philadelphia, Florida and Arizona leaves me cold, though. Then again, Seattle, Kansas City and Tampa Bay are boring AL teams.
Going to Baltimore for the rematch of the overhyped “Battle of the Beltways” will be fun for many Nats fans who haven’t returned to Charm City since gaining a Washington team. (Warning — don’t go over the traditional Baltimore/Washington Parkway route because of bridge construction. Take I-95.)
Camden Yards is one of the great U.S. sports venues. It captured that old feel in a new building to become the benchmark nationwide. The Nats’ new stadium abandons that style and we’ll know soon enough if it was the right thing to do. That is, if we can park underground or ground level.
Many Washingtonians blew off the Orioles in the belief owner Peter Angelos was blocking the nation’s capital from gaining a team. The current TV contract debacle doesn’t lend to any healing, either.
But maybe going to Camden Yards will be like attending a reunion and resuming old friendships once lost over a forgotten dispute. Maybe it’s time to watch both leagues and have some fun.
Then again, the three-game series in Washington last month showed there’s plenty of rivalry between cities when Washington took two-of-three games. Baltimore has always been more hateful of Washington than vice versa. Washingtonians don’t really have much of an opinion on Baltimore outside crabs and the Inner Harbor. Baltimoreans flat out don’t like Washingtonians. They think we’re stuck up.
The hard part of creating a rivalry right now is both are losing teams. Kinda hard to get up for a big game when it just means inching closer to .500.
Just being back in the AL East for two weeks has its moments. Granted, the sweep at Boston when pounded three straight nights was no fun, but wasn’t it great to see the Green Wall and those fans? Those are baseball fans. And who didn’t love two late wins over the Yankees. Bet that shut up all those Jeter-lovers around the water cooler this week.
It has been a great diversion from the reality Washington has little pitching and will struggle to avoid 90 losses. Momentarily forgotten were the coming trades that could strip the team of a few fan favorites.
For now, let’s try to remember the good old days of watching AL East baseball. If only Cal Ripken, Jr. would play.
Rick Snider has covered local sports for 28 years. Contact him at [email protected].
