When Baltimore-area native Michael O?Connor throws the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. Friday for the Washington Nationals against the Baltimore Orioles at RFK Stadium, it could be the first salvo in an intense Beltway rivalry.
“It?s going to be exciting for everybody, as it should be,” said Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo, who graduated in 1973 from George Washington University in Washington. “You?ve got two cities close by each other and you?re going to create a rivalry, a natural rivalry. It?s good for the game. It?s good for Baltimore. It?s good for Washington. They?ll probably pack the house at their park and pack it at our park.”
With the two teams struggling on the field and suffering from subpar attendance, however, the would-be turf battle 35 years in the making could be much ado about nothing.
Brandon Snyder, the Orioles No. 1 draft pick in 2005, graduated from high school in Northern Virginia. He is now a catcher for the Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds.
“I grew up going to the games (at Camden Yards). The fan base is great,” said Snyder, who said that many of his high school friends are now Nationals? fans. “Before the Nationals, the Orioles were all over Northern Virginia.”
Steve Davis, host of WBAL-1090?s Sportsline, said there is a lack of buzz about the series.
“It certainly does not have the luster some thought it would,” said Davis, who has worked in television and radio in both towns.
A year ago the rivalry seemed ready to take seed as Washington had its first baseball team in 34 years, despite Orioles owner Peter Angelos? best effort to keep a team out of the nation?s capital. The Orioles were the de facto hometown team for many in the region.
Angelos? lobby to keep the Montreal Expos from moving to Washington, his controlling stake in the broadcast rights of the Nationals? television broadcasts and his claim to a Baltimore radio show that “there are no real baseball fans in D.C.” while still operating an Orioles store in Washington did not endear him to Washingtonians.
In Baltimore, however, there is a general apathy in the O?s clubhouse and on the streets about the series.
Orioles players generally seem to think the rivalry needs time.
“Well, it?s too early to be a rivalry, I guess,” said Orioles pitcher Kris Benson, a former New York Met who is no stranger to cross-town rivalries. “It should be fun. The fans should have more fun with it than the players.”
Orioles infielder Brandon Fahey, whose father, Bill, played for the old Washington Senators in its last season in 1971, is largely unaware of the history of baseball in D.C. Brandon Fahey was born a decade after the Senators left Washington.
“It?s going to be nice to play where he used to play in his home stadium,” Fahey said. “It?ll be kind of weird. A bunch of people out in Bowie, and out when I travel in the minor leagues, they always ask if Bill?s my dad, the Senator. I guess they used to be Senators fans.”
Of course, there are several threads that connect the two teams. Nationals manager Frank Robinson was a Hall of Fame player for the Orioles. O?Connor, like Perlozzo, also went to GWU.
“It will be a little weird facing them. But, I?m a National now,” said O?Connor, who is from Howard County and played baseball at Mt. St. Joseph?s.
? Staff writers Ron Snyder and David Driver contributed to this report.
