They're Here

My time is tracked, my computer is locked, and it’s time for something new and different…

[](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51431-2005Apr13.html)

I’m just minutes from Dunn Loring Metro, the Orange Line and RFK — pictures and full report postgame. GO NATS!

Tom Davis: Smarter Than Tony Kornheiser

If you’ve been watching the news, you know the House Committee on Government Reform held hearings Thursday on the Major League Baseball steroid scandal, subpoenaing several current and retired players plus Commissioner Bud Selig and players’ union head Donald Fehr. The committee chairman is Republican Rep. Thomas Davis of Virginia’s 11th District, covering the central-southern half of Fairfax and most of Prince William County.

Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post and ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption has been adamant over the past few days that Davis instigated these hearings purely out of spite for baseball choosing DC over Northern Virginia as the Expos’ new home. For anyone with knowledge of DC-area baseball politics, this is a patently stupid theory on its face, and it’s rather surprising that a local writer would even consider it. But let’s take a moment to knock it down comprehensively, just for fun.

• First: Davis represents neither of the proposed stadium locations in Virginia.
  The early preferred sites for Northern Virginia baseball were clearly in the Arlington/Alexandria corridor, well inside the Beltway on Metro lines. Almost all of inside-the-Beltway VA is part of the 8th District, represented by Democrat Jim Moran. After those sites were rejected, baseball promoters proposed a stadium north of Dulles Airport in Loudoun County, part of Republican Frank Wolf’s 10th District. That location was the one actually rejected last fall in favor of the District of Columbia proposal.
• Second: Virginia probably didn’t want the stadium, and certainly didn’t want to pay for it.
  The Arlington/Alexandria proposal died very early in the game, due to (a) property owners’ disinterest in selling and (b) NIMBYs. Out at Dulles, people questioned both the traffic load (20,000 more cars on the westbound Toll Road during rush hour?) and the difficulty Maryland residents/potential fans would have just reaching the stadium. On the financial side, VA Gov. Mark Warner (D) stated in September that DC was offering baseball more money than Virginia was willing to give. I think this guy’s view is rather representative of ground-level support for a publicly-funded stadium in 703-land.
• Third: Davis doesn’t hate the District!
  Matter of fact, Davis is sponsoring a bill to grant DC voting representation in the House. He’s not a kneejerk hard-right, small-government guy; that kind of politician simply can’t get elected in this area with several hundred thousand federal and fed-contract workers. There’s no political hay to be made here in screwing the District.

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Braves-Nats: Richmond in the Balance

As highlighted by Eric at Off Wing, Basil at Nationals Inquirer (based out of my old stomping grounds in Midlothian, VA) noted Monday that the Atlanta Braves just signed a radio deal with Richmond’s WRNL-AM 910, to complement their AAA farm team in Richmond and its deal with WXGI-AM 950. He points out that this is the first time in ages that the A-Braves have appeared on Richmond radio, and wonders if they’re not trying to protect the Virginia capital, just 90 miles south of the new kids in the NL East, as Braves country.

I think Basil at NI is one shrewd guy. Little by little, Richmond is becoming a DC exurb, and it’s only natural that they will eventually view the Nationals as their home team, similar to the Carolina Panthers’ takeover of the entire state of North Carolina despite major protests in eastern NC when the team was launched and displaced the Redskins from the NFC’s TV deal. Pre-Nats, Virginia outside the 703 area code has historically leaned slightly more toward the Braves than the Orioles, especially since the early ’90s when Atlanta started winning. So Atlanta has quite a bit to lose here, hence the territorial play.

The next catch is that Atlanta and the Richmond Metropolitan Authority have been locked in a 3-4 year battle over the R-Braves’ future in the city. The Diamond, built in 1985, isn’t really a bad park (other than the drainage problem last summer), it just suffers from being one of the last built before the post-Camden Yards revolution in baseball stadium design. Atlanta has made veiled threats to move the team if their demands for a new or heavily renovated stadium aren’t met, using ex-AA Greenville, SC as an object lesson. But now with the Nats 90 miles north, the RMA has a trump card: if the A-Braves won’t be reasonable, the RMA can just dial 202.

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A Week In Review, And It's Not Even Saturday

The sports world is trying to kill me this week. That’s the only conclusion I can logically reach.

First the Red Sox. As I said in a second-hand post to the Sons of Sam Horn bulletin board, I’m not a citizen of Red Sox Nation — maybe a green-card holder at best, which means I admire and would like to be part of what they have, but it’s not mine yet. That said, any baseball fan with a heart save Cardinals fans (who are great fans as well) had to love what happened Wednesday night. It should be noted that the Cards stank it up, but they ran into an absolute buzzsaw. On the night of a lunar eclipse, 18 years to the day after their last disappointment, the Boston Red Sox changed history. (Note to self: figure out some way to get that game from TiVo to DVD.)

Then the Hokies. Really, if you want a good idea of what went through my mind there, first read the halftime report at 17-7 Georgia Tech, then go to the wrap-up at 34-20 Hokies. TechSideline.com was going bipolar and/or manic-depressive most of the game, and I would have joined them had I not been giving cell-phone play-by-play of the entire second half to my cable-less girlfriend (so, best that I was doing so). Conclusions from that are: (1) next time, I want a color commentator, (2) commercial breaks are absolutely necessary for a broadcaster, and (3) better to PBP a team I don’t care about so much, so I can actually speak when the unthinkable happens, as it did repeatedly tonight.

Check out Tom’s and Bret’s takes, too.

Hate Hate Hate

Incoherent, disconnected thoughts coming, trying to gather my observations from various parts of the postseason. Deal with it.

• How could such an incredible postseason leave us with such a crappy World Series? I mean, go Marlins, but still.
• I hate the Yankees.
• Were the Atlanta Braves even involved in the playoffs? If the Braves finished with the best record in the majors, then blew it like they always do, would anyone care, even their fans (and I’m one of them)?
• I hate the Yankees.
• My favorite Demotivator is Mistakes, from the original collection. It’s brutally fitting this year, because if the purpose of Dusty Baker’s life is only to serve as a warning to others about when to pull your starting pitcher, the least Grady Little could do is take the freaking hint.
• I hate the Yankees.
• I had given up on the Red Sox after they lost Game 5. I said there was no way they would pull out Game 7, even after they won Game 6. Then, sometime around the fifth inning tonight, I made the mistake of having faith. That was really dumb.
• Moment of perspective: we may never have seen two simultaneous League Championship Series this good. Ever.
• I hate the Yankees.
• I believe in the Cubs’ curse. The Fan was merely a player in something much larger than himself. The Red Sox had enough vulnerabilities, especially against the Yankees, that them losing was easily explainable and predictable by non-supernatural means. The Cubs, against the Marlins? No way.
• I hate the Yankees.
• The Minnesota Twins’ largest postseason impact this year wasn’t even in baseball — it was forcing a Minnesota Golden Gophers home football game to move to Friday night.
• I hate the Yankees.
• If I didn’t have to be on-call this weekend, and launch a project next week, I could be going to the World Series (thanks Kevin!). That would be the only benefit of the Marlins going, and I can’t take advantage of it.
• I hate the Yankees.
• Guess it’s hockey season now for me. Maybe the Canes will show some signs of life — the Monday night tie against the Panthers was actually promising, and but for Roberto Luongo standing on his head in the third and OT, they’d have had their first win of the year. Getting discounted NHL Center Ice rules, by the way.
• Dear God, I hate the Yankees.