Assessing The National Pastime: Forbes is out with their annual list of “Baseball’s Most Valuable Teams.” The top five are predictable: the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs. Forbes concludes that “the national pastime has never been stronger.” That said, the Tigers, Giants, Indians and Rangers are suffering, their values slipping over the past year. The Nats are ranked 14th, just behind the Mariners, but ahead of the Orioles (at 17th) as well as the D-backs, Blue Jays, and Brewers. The Marlins are dead last.

The Nats are valued at $406 million and, while their value will increase, don’t let anyone tell you that D.C. is recession proof. Barring a near-miracle, the Anacostia Boys are sure to draw fewer patrons this year, and the Washington Post reports that development around Nationals Park is at a standstill. While the team is still viewed as a Major League stepchild and needs to establish a clear local identity, the idea that the Nats are poorly run and that the city didn’t shell out enough for the ballpark is a crock.

Nationals Park is unfairly stigmatized: the result of all the oohing and ahhing over Camden Yards, a weird comparison with “the cathedral” in New York and the belief (repeated in Baseball Prospectus) that the new stadium is a “$693 million boondoggle.” But the real boondoggle is 225 miles north of here and is priced at $1.5 billion. It’s a monument to excess. It’s amazing to me that we have yet to hear from baseball’s gurus about how embarrassing Yankee Stadium is — and that has nothing to do with the wind.

I talked with a fan of the Trolleys last week who advised me on finding a nickname for the Nats’ home for use in the blog. I told him that I was playing with “the blossom” (for Cherry Blossom). He smiled and suggested “the Happy Meal.” Nats Park, he went on to say, “lacked the grit of Dodger Stadium” and “the feel of a real baseball park,” implying that all those Dodger fans out there in L.A. were not as fey as I might suppose.  That’s right: L.A. is known for its blue collar ethic, its toughness, its “grit” — which it lacked, apparently, in Brooklyn. That Athens of America.

Nationals Park is a good ballpark: it plays well, it’s easy to get to, it has great sight lines and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. The Nats are in last place, but the franchise is solid. Don’t complain about Mark Lerner, we could have this guy. The one thing the franchise could use is better radio coverage and less dependence on guys like this who, frankly, just don’t like baseball. Apart from that, there isn’t anything wrong here that winning can’t solve.

MLB Extra Innings: I signed up in April, just as the season started. It’s been worth it. There’s nothing to hate and the local feeds give viewers a chance to assess booth talent (D-backs color man Mark Grace is overrated and the Red Birds Mike Shannon is deplorable). If you’re interested in seeing west coast games, EI is an alternative to the endless blathering about “the nation,” ”the evil empire” or the New York Chokes. 

My first week I had access to over 100 games, which means you have to set limits. My rule is that I cannot watch a game during the day, unless it’s the Nats or Cubs or a game that features Lincecum, Haren, Greinke, Meche, Webb, Lowe, Lester, Buehrle, Oswalt, Harden, Lilly, Cook, Francis, Lackey, Braden, Hamels, or Maholm. Other than that …

On Friday night I watched the Nats attempt to master Johan Santana; during commercials I checked ”the nation’s” game against the Yankees. I settled on the Red Sox and Yankees before switching over to D-backs-Giants game, catching a part of the Bucs-Padres tilt during commercials. I finished by watching the “Showboats” lose to the McCovey’s in Arizona, just so I could see Lincecum pitch. You can see why he won the Cy Young.

 

The problem with “Extra Innings” (if it is a problem) is that there’s almost too much to watch. So, after my first week, I decided that (barring reports of a no-hitter in progress) it’s better to watch one game at a time. Like having one cigarette at a time, it doesn’t end the addiction. I couldn’t pass up the Nats-Mets broadcast on Saturday, but then watched the Red Sox-Yanks before finishing with the Rangers-Orioles. Extra Innings is great, so long as you don’t have to make a living.

Just A Few Words: about the O’s … who are in the process of getting crushed by the Rangers, whose pitching staff is being carried by their bats.  Ian Kinsler is hitting over .500 against the birds and is on his way to an MVP season … it appears that the “great left field hope” Felix Pie might never master big league pitching. The Cubs gave up on him and shipped him to Baltimore. He’s two for his last 26 … he’s likely to be replaced by Lou Montanez, another Cubs prospect, drafted third overall in 2000. It’s been a long road to the majors for Montanez, but people say he can hit. That’s what they said about Pie … the O’s are filled with former Cubs, the result of having Cub front office guy Andy McPhail as the team’s president of baseball operations … Pie and Montanez are just two of the Cubbies that McPhail brought over: the one other worth mentioning is lefty Rich Hill who, after one good year in Chicago, slipped badly. He’s currently on the DL.

I recently received this email, from an irate fan of another sport, complaining about our last entry — “My Fellow Americans …” It is entitled “The inherent anti-American effect of river-dogz.com.” We reprint it here in full and without edits:

I’m a new “contributor” to this website, and I feel as though my presence has been missing for to [sic] long. Because it is a site that I am sorry to say has been spinning rapidly out of control.

It began with good intentions – to provide the public (all 15 of you) with useless baseball facts to distract you from whatever daily chore you call a job. But I can’t help notice, that buried deep in these posts, is an anti-American sentiment, one that strikes deep at the core of what our great nation stands for.

Take the most recent post “My fellow Americans, our long Nationals’ nightmare is …” I’ll move past the basic problem in syntax and raise a far more frightening issue. One that’s buried deep in the article.

At one point the author writes, “Baseball is not a game of infant gratification, but of perseverance and patience.” I could not agree more with that statement, and I applaud the author for what is a profound and true statement about the game of baseball. It is a simple and wonderful description to be sure.

But, the author allows you to click on “infant gratification,” which then brings you to the Washington Redskins Cheerleader page. This, my fellow patriots is humor; run amuck. There is nothing more “American” than the Washington Redskins cheerleaders.

The Redskins site itself states, “The job of a Washington Redskins Cheerleader is to be a lady at all times, to be gracious and kind to those she comes into contact with and to support and uphold the impeccable image of the Washington Redskins organization.”

As a native of Washington DC, born before the Nationals were in existence, I refuse to even admit that they exist (as any true Orioles’ fan is required to do). But, because baseball was my first love, I will continue to follow news about the team - and support a website that started when they came to town … but only up to a certain point.

To take such a cheep shot, at our own national heroes, the Washington Redskin Cheerleaders – that, my fellow Americans, is one step to [sic] far. They are gracious and kind, and in the end, aren’t they the ones who are the basic fabric holding our great democracy together?

signed,

The Opposition Party