May 21, 2007

Orioles v. Nats - Quick Note

You may be surprised to see a total lack of back-and-forth banter between the Orioles fans who contribute to his blog and the Nats fan who also does. This is readily explainable.

--For Orioles fans, bragging about beating the Nats two out of three is like bragging about beating a four-year-old girl at Madden. It's just unfulfilling.

--For a Nats fan, bragging about coming back to beat the Orioles on a three-run rally against human piece of shit Danys Baez is like bragging about beating a four-year-old girl at Madden who refused to play as any team other than the Redskins.

--Also, as much as Nats fans would like to brag about the above-average attendance numbers at RFK this weekend, they also saw the TV coverage and realized that at least half of the fans shown on TV were in Orioles gear. As much as Orioles fans would like to be proud of that, we're not filling our own stadium so I'm not sure why we would go to a "decrepit football stadium" (as Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun calls it) rather than our own beautiful Camden Yards. Must be all that Nats star power.

5 Responses:

Brien said...

I'm not sure why Perlazzo keeps putting Baez in close games. Maybe he's trying to get fired?

I also can't believe how little hype there is surrounding these "Battle of the Beltways" series. No one really seems to care.

J-Red said...

I think you've hit on the root problem of Natpathy in general. Orioles fans don't care because we're expected to stomp them. Nats fans don't care because they don't care about anything except how trendy and cool it is to be a Nats fan. It's an offshoot of the longstanding D.C. problem of Capathy.

Jeremy said...

I'm guessing neither of you guys were at RFK for any of the three games this weekend? Believe me... the people who were there cared a whole hell of a lot. And nothing gives us Nats fans more pleasure than being the ones to finally flip the switch and cause the Baltimore Sun to write their series of articles on whether Perlozzo should go. Jesus, you guys couldn't sweep a team that started three guys who would struggle to make most teams' AAA squads? That's rich. And there weren't nearly as many O's fans as you think or as I expected. I'd guess in the 31,000 crowd on Saturday, maybe 5,000 MAX. I can't wait to go to Baltimore next month for two of the games. And hey, Camden Yards and Pickles is half of the fun. Seeing the O's lose to a team that all O's fans think is hapless and a joke is way more fun. Fear the Nook.

J-Red said...

4-year-olds dude. 4-year-olds.

J-Red said...

I took some time to think about my actual reply to Jeremy's comment. I was just talking earlier today to my SoCal friend about my mastery of anti-D.C. rhetoric. I explained to him that between Baltimore v. Washington/Boston/NYC and Maryland v. Duke/UNC, I had more inferiority complex experience than even a Bostonite.

Now I see comments from Jeremy that make me wonder if Nats fans aren't actually the ones with the complex. It would be understandable, to be sure. That organization is being run pretty much like a minor league team, Bill Simmons' assertion that the NL is AAAA to begin with aside. In this, the first year of full MASN coverage, Angelos has tipped his hand and used the Orioles broadcast team to cover the game. In addition, if Jeremy's estimation of only 5,000 Orioles fans at the game is correct, MASN is predominately only focusing on Orioles fans at the Really Freaking Krappy Stadium.

Perhaps more concerning is that Jeremy took pleasure in the Nationals "flipping the switch", and causing the Baltimore media to comment on their own managerial shortcomings. Doesn't that presuppose that the Baltimore media ever cared about or commented on the Nats' organizational flaws? I can't believe Jeremy would be referring to Rick Maese's column from April, which was basically a "cheer up Charlie" to Baltimore, reminding the city that they could have had the run of sports luck endured by D.C. That certainly does not amount to wasted space criticizing their sorry ass team.

Perhaps he meant the switch was flipped in that the D.C. media was not criticizing the Nats' manager. Nah, that couldn't be the case. The only person on the Post's staff who gives half a shit is Thomas Boswell, and his rah-rah article in today's Post completely ignores reality in the new era of baseball in both Beltways.

Boswell, like most Nats' fans, ignores the one obvious flaw in the whole "can't we all get along" dreamworld. This isn't like Dallas and Ft. Worth having two teams. No Orioles fan will support EITHER team when things are bad and no real Nationals fan (if one exists) will support EITHER team when things are bad. These two cities do not like one another.

Washington relies on its status as the second most powerful city in the world for its identity, even though no one who derives benefit from that actually has anything to do with it. Baltimore derives its identity from deciding that it's cool to be in Baltimore, even if there is no logical way to justify that (which is pretty much the same as Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc). That's why days like Preakness are so important.

The funniest illustration of the two cities is that both are predominately liberal, but one city has white residents who hide from black people as much as possible and the other city has white residents who are say "Fuck it. Crack and the Clap aren't that bad." (For the sake of argument, we'll assume that no white person voted for Marion Barry in D.C.)

And now it appears that the Nats actually "flipped the switch". Their fans are making asinine comments like "You couldn't even sweep us!" To me, it sounds a lot like my fellow Terps fans who care more about beating Duke in the regular season than even making the NCAA Tournament. How did that happen?

[And, yes, I considered that Jeremy is so Madden-incompetent that he might not have realized that one REALLY SHOULD NOT brag about beating a four-year-old girl who only plays with the Redskins.]

Summer is here and there's never been a better time to try your hand at online sports betting. Place your bets on your favorite horse with horse racing or even try your luck with your favorite football team. Enjoying sport is just a click away!