Beltway battle buddies

This past weekend I headed out to the old ballpark for the first time this season. The Baltimore Orioles were in town to take on the hometown Washington Nationals for what the media dubbed "The Battle of the Beltway." Although neither team had a winning record, I was excited to watch the game.

I grew up cheering for Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray and the O's. This was my team … well, right up until the name Peter Angelos became associated with the club. Over the last couple years, I've found myself passing up free tickets to Camden Yards. Even though I still like Miguel Tejada and several of the other new guys, it's just too difficult to cheer for a team owned by Angelos. I could barely muster enough effort to check their boxscores anymore.

Enter the Nats. If you're looking for reasons why D.C. welcomed baseball back with open arms last season, Angelos is probably the biggest. Not only was he a cancer to the O's (which is fitting since he made his money on tobacco lawsuits), but also became a royal pain in the ass when baseball commissioner Bud Selig finally decided the "national pastime" should have a team in … you know, the nation's capital. Angelos bitched and moaned so much that the new D.C. based team would steal what was left of his fan base, that Selig gave him the Nats television rights. Now who thought that was a good idea?

When the Nationals officially began play, I did what most people did - accepted them with open arms. I embraced them, even though they were just castoffs from Montreal/Puerto Rico. It didn't matter who was on the team. All that mattered was that they were not going to be owned by Angelos.

Back to this past Saturday night. Even though the Nationals were only 3-11 at home on the year and are so injury-riddled that Alfonso Soriano was actually their best outfielder coming into the game, I knew the Nats were going to win. In fact, I guaranteed victory before the game. Why? Because the Nats are undefeated in games I attend. They beat the Mets, Cubs, Brewers, Astros and Phillies with me in attendance last year, so I had little doubt they'd pull through on this night.

Thanks to a Soriano homer, the Nats cruised to an 8-3 victory and I improved to 6-0 lifetime at Nats games. The Washington Post and Washington Times both ran articles the following day proclaiming that the RFK Stadium was rocking for the first time this season, and that for one night everything was like last year's honeymoon season. Well, now you know why. And if you know someone in the Nationals front office, pass along how well the team does when I'm at the ballpark. Maybe they'll give me season tickets in hopes of turning the team's season around. (Since we're on the subject, I prefer to be on the third baseline. But I'm not picky).

While I was at the game though, I noticed something interesting – there is no "Battle of the Beltway." The rivalry that the media is so desperately trying to create doesn't exist. The only two times I could tell that the Orioles were anything more than just another visiting ballclub were a) when we came up from the metro station to see people actually picketing Peter Angelos (I'm not kidding either. We're talking 30 or 40 people waving signs and chanting about Angelos) and 2) when a couple hundred O's fans yelled out "OH!" during the end of the National Anthem, only to be blasted by a chorus of boos from the Washington faithful.

I came away from the game convinced that by in large local fans still care about the Orioles players. I mean, if you live in D.C. and wanted to attend a game over the last 35 years, Bal'mer was the best place to go (as long as you didn't mind the occasional STD).

Where was I? Oh, that's right - the fans. A happy balance was struck. An unspoken agreement was made years ago that it's okay to cheer for the O's players and not the owner, which is what Nats fans did last year as baseball continued to own and operate the team formerly known as Expos. All the fans did was change the color of the jersey they wore out to the ballpark.

And I have a feeling that if Angelos sold the Orioles tomorrow that Nats fans would openly return to cheering for the "other" local baseball team. Fans would then have an American League team and a National League team to root for. After all, they're both just mediocre franchises looking for a legit owner to turn them into a contender.

Brian Murphy has the perfect solution for the problems with the New York Knicks -- make Isiah Thomas the coach next year and let Larry Brown be the team's general manager. They could alternate positions year after year until one guy knifes the other. Contact him at murf@the5holes.com.