September 29, 2004
Capitol Moves
James Joyner is covering the news about the Expos move to Washington.
I've been trying to come up with a good name for the new team, and I think I finally have it. It respects the history of the franchise and also fits with the new city: The Washington Exposés!
Update: The Washington Post reports that the move is official. (Hat tip to James Joyner at the above link.)
Re: Expos move to RFK Stadium
Well, Dave, I had lunch with Bobby Kennedy's daughter, Kathleen Kennnedy Townsend, a couple of years back, at a Sen. Sarbanes function, and let's face it, it will be a fitting tribute to the late Sen. Kennedy to have baseball played in his stadium again, even if only for a few years.
I also recall seeing the Dead and Dylan play in that cavernous stadium once and the temperature was about 100 and the humidity 100. I think poor Jerry Garcia even passed out backstage.
Will Dylan discuss that day in his forthcoming memoir? Only time will tell.
Getting back to baseball, in the city of Heinie Manush, Walter Johnson and Frank Howard, there should be baseball.
I feel a little bad for Montreal, but they'll always have Paris, to quote from Casablanca.
Montreal still has the best beer (Molson), the best french wines, the best cuisine and restaurants, the most comely women, and plenty to do on even the coldest nights.
Washington in the summers needs baseball. Their population is baseball crazy. They've bid up Orioles tickets and sold out those tickets like crazy. Plus you have all of Northern Virginia to come to games.
Welcome back, baseball, to America.
--AJK
PS re: baseball in DC
This might be George W. Bush's greatest legacy as President, you never know.
In an age he has made creepily similar to the 1970s milieu I grew up in with homeland security, airline check lists and an endless land war in Asia (c.f. John Fogerty's Deja Vu All Over Again), at least he has brought back something worthwhile to the poor poople of DC to watch in the summers.
--AJK