Counterpoint - You're a Filthy Traitor

The subject line says it all. Here's why:

1) AS WASHINGTONIAN AS MANASSAS - Jeremy grew up in Calverton (He likes to call it Colesville. Typical Montgomery County mentality.). According to Google Maps, his hometown is 33 minutes from Camden Yards and 30 minutes from where the Nats' new stadium will be. Given traffic, Baltimore is the closer team. On Metro, Navy Yard is 45 minutes from Greenbelt, and longer on the Red Line.

Montgomery County kids like to pretend they're Washingtonians, but really what they mean is that they associate with the wealthy non-Black portion of Northwest D.C. Of course, nearly no one who lives in NW D.C. is from D.C., but they've got the money and class that Baltimore supposedly lacks, so that gets overlooked. We'll see how many people are actually willing to stomach real D.C. on the Green Line and Yellow Line after 11p.

2) MoCo HAS HORRIBLE SPORTS FANS - So I guess we shouldn't be too surprised at the exodus of supposed Orioles fans to watch the low-budget Nats play. It's easy to romanticize the new thing when they make it easy for you. However, this is Northern Virginia's team. They made that clear when MLB did everything short of setting up a puppet ownership group to get the stadium built in NoVa. Granted, they didn't want to deal with the D.C. government, but no one ever does. Even MLB assumed that Montgomery County, PG County, and AA County would remain Orioles' hotbeds. Only the southernmost counties were considered possible Nats fans. That's why the stadium was built along 295 and 395, so NoVas and Southern Marylanders could have easy access. That's why it's as far away as possible from Montgomery County without being in Virginia. This is not Montgomery County's team, but they underestimated MoCo's flavor of the month mentality and fickleness.

3) D.C. HATES BASEBALL - It's true. People born and raised in D.C. have no interest in baseball. They've said it many times. The councilpeople have said it many times. They don't even expect to have a full house, with the possible exception of the first year in the new park. Oh, they'll make money. They'll sell those luxury boxes out year after year to the D.C. law firms and power players. No one will actually be there though. Just look at the horrendous attendance at RFK last season. In D.C., it's not about watching baseball. It's about schmoozing and status. Once the luster wears off the team will be in financial trouble and D.C. will lose it's third baseball franchise.

4) JEREMY UNDERSTATES HIS ORIOLE FANDOM - His AOL Screen Name is based on Cal Ripken, Jr., Jeremy's childhood hero and favorite baseball player of all time.

5) ANGELOS OWNS THE NATS TOO - Technically, the Lerners are the Nats' majority owners, but thanks to Angelos' sweetheart deal with MLB, he has a huge financial stake in the Nats via his ownership of MASN. Basically, if the Nats do well the O's make money. If the Nats do poorly, the O's make money. Why on Earth would you abandon your childhood team as a protest of the ownership, only to latch onto a team that has a big Angelos leech stuck right on its ass?

6) IT'S NOT THE AL EAST - You can't be a Duke fan and a UNC fan, you can't root for the Cowboys and the Redskins, and you can't abandon a team you grew up with just because times are rough. I understand the Orioles are in a tough division, despite Toronto winning back-to-back World Series in the early 90's and the Orioles themselves going to two straight ALCS in the mid-90's. It's not impossible though. The Orioles drought is no worse than some other former powerhouse teams, like Oakland and Minnesota. Sure, those teams made the playoffs more often recently, but what satisfaction is there in making the playoffs at or barely above .500 just to lose? The oft-cited Nats playoff fever of a couple years ago ended with the Nats in last place, but not far out of a playoff spot. That's not exciting, that's celebrating mediocrity.

7) PARTING SHOT - Now obviously I haven't spent the past 2 years concocting an elaborate and well-planned cover story like Jeremy has, so forgive the weak organization of my response. I guess I just can't imagine betraying a team that was loved as much as Jeremy loved the Orioles. I'm proud to say I don't know, nor know of, a single Redskins fan who truly became a Ravens fan when the Ravens arrived. They know they weren't welcome. I guess the Nats will take whatever they can get for the 5 to 10 years they can get them. At least D.C. United will have a nice stadium when the Nats move to Norfolk.