Baseball in D.C.

Okay, the BoSox have now dropped two games to a team that, even with the two wins, has the second-worst record in baseball. The Rockies are 23 and 41 (.359); only the Montréal Expos are in worse shape at 20 and 43 (.317). And now the hated Yankees are 5.5 games up in the AL East. Sure, if it was time to be worrying about the wild card race, Boston would still be the top contender, but I'd rather we didn't have to count on that.

It's a 3:05 p.m. (UTC-5:00) start time today, so I guess I'll get to try to keep up with the action via Gameday this afternoon.

Thinking of the Expos, a co-worker, R---, and I were talking about the attempts to get them moved south to D.C. the other day and I'm of two minds. On the one hand, it would be really nice to be able to jump on Metro instead of having to drive up to Baltimore (MARC trains don't provide any special service for Orioles games) to see a ball game, but the Expos are a National League team. It would only be an odd interleague matchup that would bring the BoSox to D.C.

R--- suggested that the NL and AL swap Toronto and Montréal so that the Blue Jays could end up in the National League and D.C. could have an American League team, but I think that would made a D.C. (or Northern Virginia) team even less likely. As it stands, Peter Angelos is already worried about a drop in attendance if D.C. baseball fans get a more local team.

In the end, it probably wouldn't have much impact. If I wanted to go to a game just to go to a game, D.C. would probably be easier to get to (assuming the ballpark is Metro accessible; if the team ends up in far outside of the Beltway in Northern Virginia, say out by Dulles, then it would probably be easier to get to Baltimore), but to see games and teams that matter to me, I would probably still have to go to Baltimore.

Still, the mock ups proposed by the Washington Baseball Club do look sweet ...