Red States and Orange States

I was reading the paper in the bathroom today, which might I add is one of my favorite things to do each day, and I saw Boswell had a column today. Boswell writes for the Post and is one of my favorite writers so I turned right to E1. Boswell was talking about the Baltimore Orioles and there chances for the upcoming season. No matter how their season goes I'm always going to love my Birds. Boswell's article brought upon the following blog.

I'm a Washingtonian. I always have, and always will be one. I'm proud to live in the vicinity of our Nations Capitol. But no matter how much I love being from DC I will not root for the Nationals. Now I don't hate the Nationals. I'm glad they are here and they are making alot of people happy. But 23 years ago when I was born there was only one team here and that was the Orioles. I was born and raised an O's fan and even though my town has a team, I will not be switching to the Nats unless Peter Angelos continues to run the franchise into the group which is noted as being one of the 20 rules of a sports fan by Bill Simmons...

Rule 19 part 5: The owner of your favorite team treated his fans so egregiously over the years that you couldn't take it anymore -- you would rather not follow them at all then support a franchise with this owner in charge.

Other than that, there is no chance I'm switching. I played baseball for one reason, to be like Cal Ripken. I still remember the feeling playing on a little league team named the Orioles and being number 8. I wish I could have had the jersey. Growing up everyone wanted to be number 8, play shortstop and bat 3rd. You ask anyone between the ages of 21 and 30 from the Washington area who is the best baseball player of all-time and most all will say Cal Ripken.

Each summer going to 33rd street watching games from behind a pole as the O's battled Team Steroid, the Oakland A's. I have seen Cal hit 15 of his 431 home runs. I went to 58 of his 2632 games he played in a row. When driving to the game we always knew Cal was playing.

Finally the O's moved out of 33rd Street to the best ballpark ever built, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It's the best place to watch a ball game and yes Cal was still there, everyday. On my 13th Birthday, which The Don attended with me in the sky suite, Cal hit a home run.

Then there were other guys, Mike Mussina, whom I still love even though he went to the Yankees. Please note I began to hate Peter Angelos when he like my favorite pitcher go. I do not blame Mussina and I hope he wins a championship. In my later years playing baseball I wanted to pitch just like Mussina. I even wore number 35. I don't like the number but it was Mike's number. My best year pitching I wore number 35 in 8th grade. I went 23-2 with a 1.32 ERA. Yet I was not selected to the All-Star Team but I'm not bitter. In 1997, I was able to shake Mussina's hand and he gave me a baseball at a game. To this day I still trade for Mussina in my baseball video game and make him my number.

Eddie, Brady, Mike, Billy, Greg, Chris, Mora, Tejada, Roberts, Lowell, Markakis, Huff, Ray, Benson, Bedard, Cabrera, McDonald, BJ and the list goes on and on with past present and furure players of my team I will always love.

So you switched, that is fine. I don't care. I will admit, I do love National League Baseball. I wish the O's were in the NL cause then the Don and I could have another rivalry. Last year I was watching a Nats game on TV which is a rare site seeing them on TV and I told my dad "hey I like this Zimmermann guy. He is really good and I like how he plays." My dad followed with "you know he went to University of Virginia." After hearing that, it was done. No way am I even going to somewhat follow a team with a star from UVA.

But don't give me the crap about you can have an NL and AL team. As the Sports Guy says "What is this sports version of Bi-Sexuality? You can only have one wife and only one team per sport." Ask "the Factor" about what happens to people in New York City who root for both the Yanks and Mets.

So choose, O's or Nats. I chose 23 years ago.