baseball in washington

[smazza]

    ABSTINENCE IS A LOT easier when whatever you're giving up wasn't all that great anyway. Certainly many Washington area baseball fans have had no trouble depriving themselves of the Baltimore Orioles over the past few years. A boycott was a way of protesting the machinations of Orioles owner Peter Angelos to keep a team out of Washington. It was righteous and good and civic-minded, but above all, the Orioles really did stink. Conspiracy theorists even suggested Mr. Angelos was using bad teams to drive down attendance, thus illustrating the Orioles' vulnerability to competition from a prospective Washington team.

 

That seems unlikely, but if there is a conspiracy going on, it's taken a strange new turn. The formerly hapless Orioles, suddenly flush with big bats, sharp fielding, promising young arms and a new manager, are associating with the Boston Red Sox in the vicinity of first place. And here in Washington, already we sense a weakening of will. It starts with a furtive peek at the TV every few innings, progresses to whole games at a time and will soon inevitably descend into treks to and from Camden Yards, followed by the classic morning-after plaint: "What have I done -- again?"

We really are hopeless here. We've become a city of chronic losers in professional sports. Our last championship was won in a league (women's soccer) that promptly went defunct. The mere thought of following a team as it contends for something worthwhile is enough to erase whatever resolve we had to withhold our patronage in the interest of . . . whatever it was we thought we were withholding our patronage for.

It's only April, of course. We may yet have another summer of virtuous self-abnegation. Javy Lopez could stop hitting. Sidney Ponson might stop throwing strikes. Lee Mazzilli has a whole season to prove he's not really a genius. But at this point, we have to say, things are looking ominously good.