Day 13 - A Look At Other Sports: Baseball

"A Child of Two Worlds: The Baltimore-Washington Baseball Dichotomy"

The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the smell of popcorn permeating through the air as 30,000 fans vibrantly roar at their favorite player. Most kids growing up would root for their local team. In my childhood, the team I would root for was easy. The Baltimore Orioles held a natural monopoly on the nation’s metropolitan baseball market. However, at the beginning of 2005, there was a new team in town, the Washington Nationals the relocated Montreal Expos who, despite their best efforts, were not able to turn the American pastime into a Canadian tradition. (They tried switching turf to ice and bats to stick to no avail). Who was I to root for now? I have found that there are three basic strategies to employ in choosing your team. You can stick with your childhood team, jump to the new team, or flip-flop until one team becomes halfway decent.

Strategy 1 – Sticking with the Baltimore Orioles

There are very strong personal fundamental reasons to root for the Baltimore Orioles. The model for modern day ball parks, Camden Yards, is where I saw my first baseball game. In 1992, The O’s took on the Kansas City Royals and magically won 3-2 off of a walk-off homer. It was an innocent time in baseball, when players were not caught using steroids. Camden Yards hosted the 1993 All-Star Game where Ken Griffey, Jr. became the first MLB player to hit the Baltimore/Ohio Warehouse with a home run ball. Until that point, the only people to hit the B&O Warehouse were members of lesser biker gangs.

The best short stop to ever set foot on a baseball diamond, Cal Ripken, Jr., set his iron man record of 2,632 consecutive games, a seventeen-year streak that broke the previous record by 501 games. His long-winded perfect attendance record inspired me to only miss five days of school. This was a man who has been attributed by some to have singlehandedly save the sport of baseball during the 1994-1995 strike. This was the same Cal Ripken that kept us entertained as kids, endorsing the local Wild World which became Adventure World which became Six Flags America, utilizing the greatest contribution to the 90s, local star power in commercials to get kids to ride roller coasters. And what a ride the ’96 series was. In Game One of the American League Championship series, the Orioles held a 4-3 lead until rookie Derek Jeter hit a deep fly ball into right field. When outfielder Tony Tarasco went to catch it, a young Yankees fan named Jeffrey Maier caught it. The umpires ruled it as a home run, ultimately costing the O’s the game, and the series, probably seven years of my life, the current hockey lockout, and Jersey Shore. I’m not bitter.

Strategy 2 – Jumping on board to the Washington Nationals

There are a number of reasons to root for the Washington Nationals. When the Washington Senators left for Texas in the 1960s, every boy in the nation’s capital waited for the day when Major League Baseball would move a team into DC. When that didn’t happen, the men of DC then imparted this deep desire into their extremely bored sons in the hopes that the District would soon have a team. In the meantime, father and son would wait until the Wizards, Redskins, or Capitals won something worth mentioning. When that didn’t happen, we waited until the Nats got a decent pitching staff, which finally happened in 2010

With the closer proximity to the Metro rail system and slightly friendlier vagrants, it makes some sense to switch allegiances to the Washington Nationals. They started their play in the old RFK Stadium, which may have set them up for failure, but at least it was nostalgic failure, Cubs fans can relate to this. They have now moved to the creatively named “Nationals Park” on the Anacostia River which oddly enough boasts a red, white, and blue color scheme as Stephen Strasburg, Zach Duke, Drew Storen, and the rest of the bullpen attempt to lead the Nats into postseason victory and perpetual glory. This is a recent development, as for years the Nationals lost nearly every game they played, earning them the nickname the “no-win zone”. It’s also the only ball park in which fans, in the event of a loss, will demand a recount.

Strategy 3 – The Fairweather Strategy

As someone who grew up in the Maryland-Virginia and then went to State, I know all too well the feeling you get when your only options are vast underachievers whose only hope of ever winning a title hinge on a number of impossible factors: key players from the opposition getting injured, the BCS voting in your favor, or John Calipari coaching the opposing team. Fairweather fandom has its roots and precedents in several other large cities: Los Angeles has its Lakers and Clippers; New York has the Giants and Jets; Chicago has the White Sox and the Cubs.

Most of the time, you merely wait until whatever team gets good and root for them. This is a strategy which should immediately double your dividends as you anxiously await the day you can pay for overpriced tickets, food, and parking. In an area where you just hoped for one of the teams to hit the .500 barrier and overcome the halfway mark of winning percentage, surely I will be able to make to my 30s without having to answer my kids questions’ like, “Why are your teams terrible, Daddy?” and “I’m a girl, why is my name Cal?”

This brings us to an interesting conundrum with the boys from the Beltway. The baseball gods have smiled with the largest grin and granted talent to the bullpens of both the Orioles and Nationals as they approach October with shared hopes of winning the last game of the season. Every day that I check the morning scoresheets (a tradition I lovingly carry on for my grandfather, until the day that newspapers are replaced, which will hopefully be tomorrow, since it’s much easier to check my smartphone), I hear a slight cackle from the ethereal manifestations of major league sports watch me as I deliberately dodge the question, politician style. Perhaps I should stick to being a Washington fan.

Which of these strategies is the best? Clearly, one would want to be associated with the winning team from an honorable and pure perspective, wanting to avoid the term “jumping on the bandwagon”. Given my perpetual team turmoil, I feel I am entitled to using Strategy 3. This way, my long-term strategy pays off big time. However, I am going to stick to my guns and stick with the O’s.

From the first pitch to the final out, waiting for a player to run the cycle, hit a home run, or achieve the coveted grand slam, baseball remains an ever important part of our American culture and as we near September, we look for the dwindling number of teams who will represent their cities for eternal greatness in the World Series which in this case will hopefully the Battle for the Beltway in addition to be a competition for the Commissioner’s Trophy.