When the Washington Nationals arrive in town June 23 to open the back half of their home-and-home interleague series against the Orioles, you?ll immediately notice their road gray uniforms.
Across the front they say “Washington.” Not “Nats” or “Nationals.” Washington. It?s unmistakable. The hometown nine has finally run out of excuses as to why their own road togs don?t say “Baltimore.”
OK, I know what you?re thinking. Here?s that issue that just won?t go away, the one that many fans swear is no big deal, that if the Orioles were winners, you wouldn?t hear a peep about it. But many more fans ? those of long-standing in particular ? can?t quite let it go.
The last season the Orioles wore road shirts that said “Baltimore” was 1972. That?s right, a full seven years before Washington attorney Edward Bennett Williams bought the club from Jerry Hoffberger after no local buyers stepped forward. A lot of area fans have convinced themselves that it was Williams who excised the city name from the uniform, but it was like that when he bought it.
I had lunch with Mr. Hoffberger about a year before he passed away and asked him about it. He said there were reasons behind the decision, not the least of which was the absence of a team in Washington. The Senators had left after the 1971 season, and the Orioles had made a conscious decision to go after their fans. Initially, they bought a series of billboards around the D.C. area featuring Boog Powell swinging the bat that read “Take a short drive and see a long drive.” It didn?t connect, and despite a pretty good club ? the defending AL champs at the time ? Orioles attendance decreased almost 3,000 fans per game in 1972.
Hoffberger recalled that somebody on his staff suggested that D.C. fans might show up in bigger numbers if they didn?t see the word “Baltimore” on the road shirts when the games were on TV.
As someone who was a lifelong D.C.-area fan at the time, I can assure you that this thought was perfectly ludicrous. The official reason the club gave forthe change was that they wouldn?t need to re-letter the road shirts when they recycled their old jerseys through the minors. Likely true, to some extent, but weak. Almost every major-league team was in the same boat, and they didn?t make a similar change.
Major League Baseball requires sizable advance notification for any changes to the uniform. It used to be by June 30 of the previous year, but it may be even sooner than that these days. The Expos? move to Washington wasn?t announced until late September of 2004, so there wasn?t time to change for the 2005 season. The Orioles could have done it for this year but deliberately opted not to. It?s clearly what the fans want. Why not acknowledge that for 2007?
Besides, whether in block letter or script, the word “Baltimore” looks pretty cool, doesn?t it?
Hear Phil Wood every Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN Radio 1300.
