A Dilemma

Well, for the first time in my life, it looks like Washington is going to have a real, live baseball team (assuming the ex-Expos may be categorize as "live"). With pitchers and catchers reporting tomorrow, I doubt even Marion Barry will find a way to prevent Washington from having baseball. As a life-long Orioles' fan, this presents me with an ethical dilemma of the highest order: do I for the first time renounce my allegiance to one of "my" teams?

Years ago this would have been unthinkable. When the possibility of a team in DC was brought up, I was always of a firm mind that I would remain an O's fan. The longer Peter Angelos has owned the O's, the more and more I find myself wavering on my planned monogamity with the O's. It's not a matter of the team not winning for the past 7 years. (Compared to my other teams, this almost qualifies as being successful.) It's the fact that Angelos has taken every opportunity to shit on his fans. Aside from being an obstructionist to DC baseball, which is somewhat understandable, if not unforgivable, he willingly puts a second-rate product on the field by either being unwilling to spend sufficient resources or by woefully misallocating these resources (Albert Belle).

As a result, I have decided to place the Nats' on equal standing with the O's. Though I find my heart is still more with the O's, I expect that to change, especially as I will be able to go to far more Nats' games this year.

With that said, I now open my arms to welcome the Nationals into my sports teams family. As they join the Redskins, Heels, Caps and O's, I look forward to them providing me with yet another team I can count on to let me down.