Major League Baseball made its smartest move since taking over the much maligned Montreal Expos last week by deciding to move the franchise to Washington, D.C. Sure, the San Juan experiment was fun and all, but not a real possibility. Nor were Vegas or Portland, Monterrey or Northern Virginia for that matter. The District made the most sense — the largest market and the city best prepared to take on a team immediately. A tax-financed ballpark could be made available within three years, and maybe most importantly, Washington and its surrounding area are perpetually growing. It’s a region that has changed immeasurably since the Washington Senators found the place unfit for residence in 1971.
I grew up in Northern Virginia, about 10 miles outside of the District. Baseball was a passion of mine — just as it was for about every one of my friends. In the spring, we brought our gloves to school to play catch during recess. After school, we’d play home run derby at Darsey Field until suppertime. If it rained, we would stay inside and marvel at our ever-growing baseball card collections. We were as passionate of baseball fans as you’ll find. It didn’t matter that the closest city, a city in which all of our parents worked, did not have a team. It didn’t stop us from loving the game, but we all wished D.C. had one.
A lot of my friends attached themselves to the Baltimore Orioles and we all went to games at Memorial Stadium and then at Camden Yards. Baltimore is only an hour’s drive up I-95 from Washington, give or take, and our parents were more than willing to make the drive. We cheered for Cal Ripken, baseball’s iron-man. We rooted for the Orioles come playoff time. Deep down inside, however, cheering for the O’s and Cal didn’t feel right. They belonged to Maryland. Despite the attempts of local media to persuade us, they never really were ours.
My mother had always told me stories about going to see the Senators play at Griffith Stadium. Her grandfather, my great-grandfather, was the sports editor at the Times-Herald, which later dissolved into the Washington Times. There were stories my mother told of having to give a kid in the parking lot a nickel to watch your hubcaps. There were stories of Babe Ruth sauntering in the long, right field grass, yelling at the crowd, telling them club owner Clark Griffith was too cheap to cut it. There was the unofficial team slogan; “First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.” Yes, they struggled, but there are 18 former Senator players and managers in the Hall of Fame. There was a tradition and it was lost of several generations, including my own — until now.
That’s why I’m glad to say baseball is back in Washington, despite not being able to remember a team ever being there. The kids who now play at Darsey Field after school have a home team to look up to, batting stances to emulate and players to root for. That is, of course, if the team is worth rooting for.
Besides the Redskins, the city of Washington is pretty notorious for its fair-weather sensibilities. Since moving to the downtown MCI Center, the Wizards and Capitals have had a difficult time drawing fans unless they’re competing for something. The Expos are far from a competitive team and probably won’t stand a chance at contending in the NL East until their new riverfront stadium is complete in three years. And even with $13 million in improvements, RFK Stadium isn’t going to draw people in just to see the venue. So unlike recent expansion teams, there will be no grace period that brings in the casual fans more in tune with the hubbub that accompanies the team than the product on the field. There will be a period of time where people will simply come to see the new team. These will be diehard baseball fanatics, but if they’re not competing, which I don’t see the Expos doing anytime soon, I fail to see the team drawing sizeable crowds consistently for the three years at RFK. One way to remedy this is to sign some big name free agents, but without an owner in the meantime, or new facilities and amenities, what players will find D.C. a draw?
There are plenty of questions to be answered, and for now it’s awfully difficult to perceive just how successful the team will be in Washington off the bat. It certainly was the best choice — much less of a risk than the other markets. For now, the first step has been made and the city has a team. How the rest of this historic decision plays out will be up to city officials and team management. And if history holds true, one shouldn’t rest too much confidence in D.C. city government.
