The Baltimore Orioles

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
i remember a few years back leaving work at 4 in mclean and getting there just in the bottom of the first on a friday

good times

yeah, i really miss driving to baltimore to satisfy my baseball jones :roll:

Originally posted by Double Hoya:

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
i remember a few years back leaving work at 4 in mclean and getting there just in the bottom of the first on a friday

good times

yeah, i really miss driving to baltimore to satisfy my baseball jones :roll:

Enjoy that 100 loss season. We'll see how many Washingtonians show up to watch a loser.

Originally posted by Shemp:
Enjoy that 100 loss season. We'll see how many Washingtonians show up to watch a loser.

this season doesn't matter. at all.

when the stadium opens our budget will skyrocket into the top-third of the league and we'll have a competitive team in 2009 … and unlike the completely incompetent orioles, the nats have a proven management team in place who know how to build a team from the ground up

it simply doesn't matter (a) how well we do this year (although smart money in vegas has dramatically upped the prediction on our season to about 92 losses) or (b) how many people show up for the last year of RFK … and anyone who really knows baseball understands these facts

so why would your snappy retort include attendance figures? huh?

Originally posted by Jaguar:

Originally posted by le sonick:
which way do you come through the city, jag, if you dont mind my asking?

Strangly enough, I go to work via a different route than I take home. It mostly has to do with traffic volume, etc.. I use to go via the city both ways but since they've closed off that bridge to 95 just past the stadiums for eternal construction, it's just not worth it on the trip down. (I'm actually on my 3rd different route down now due to construction crap.)

When I go down via the city, I take 83 to Mt. Royal. Then I go over to Howard St. (via Dolphin) and then MLK to Russell St. and get on 95 a little past the stadiums. Now I take 695 W.. Had been taking it to 95 South but then the crazy Wilson bridge traffic was screwing up traffic from up around Burtonsville down to 495 in all 4 lanes so I'm now taking 695 W to 70 and then 29 and down.

On the return, I'm still going up 95 to 395 to MLK and then twisting through the city up Paca St and then over to Howard St. near the Md. Instit. and then up past The Ottobar and then get on 83 N at 29th St.. When I go home, I avoid the west side of 695 at all costs because it's always a traffic madhouse.

Guess you are about the only one here who understands this.

Oh Sonick, thanks for answering my question. ;)

That's a decent-sized commute. How many cars have you gone through?

Originally posted by Shemp:
Enjoy that 100 loss season. We'll see how many Washingtonians show up to watch a loser.

knowing how lazy a lot of washingtonians are (and virginians), i suspect that many of them would rather metro to a loser than trek an hour+ for mediocrity… and remind me how the O's have done in the post-season recently? :p

Originally posted by Jaguar:

On the return, I'm still going up 95 to 395 to MLK and then twisting through the city up Paca St and then over to Howard St. near the Md. Instit. and then up past The Ottobar and then get on 83 N at 29th St.. When I go home, I avoid the west side of 695 at all costs because it's always a traffic madhouse.

Guess you are about the only one here who understands this.

Oh Sonick, thanks for answering my question. ;)

wow! quite a trip to work! i remember living in Charles Village (right near the ottobar) and what a pain it was going to the DC area. now its easy.

only suggestion to make things easier is maybe taking Washington Blvd exit off 95 and taking THAT to MLK (you'd pass right by my house!) dont know if that would eliminate stadium traffic or not, it would cut 395 out of things thats for sure.

maybe one day the west side will be safe enough to cut up Fulton Ave or Monroe St…but not now!

Originally posted by Double Hoya:

Originally posted by Shemp:
Enjoy that 100 loss season. We'll see how many Washingtonians show up to watch a loser.

this season doesn't matter. at all.

when the stadium opens our budget will skyrocket into the top-third of the league and we'll have a competitive team in 2009 … and unlike the completely incompetent orioles, the nats have a proven management team in place who know how to build a team from the ground up

it simply doesn't matter (a) how well we do this year (although smart money in vegas has dramatically upped the prediction on our season to about 92 losses) or (b) how many people show up for the last year of RFK … and anyone who really knows baseball understands these facts

so why would your snappy retort include attendance figures? huh?

Thsat would be an excellent marketing campaign. The Nationals - this season doesn't matter at all. And what's with the we's and ours? You a Kasten or Lerner?

Originally posted by sweetcell:

Originally posted by Shemp:
Enjoy that 100 loss season. We'll see how many Washingtonians show up to watch a loser.

knowing how lazy a lot of washingtonians are (and virginians), i suspect that many of them would rather metro to a loser than trek an hour+ for mediocrity… and remind me how the O's have done in the post-season recently? :p

While spending a kajillian dollars doesn't guarantee a World Series, it sure helps you make the playoffs. The Orioles happen to be in a division that has the top 2 spenders in baseball. Plus they're dysfunctional.

Originally posted by Shemp:
Thsat would be an excellent marketing campaign. The Nationals - this season doesn't matter at all. And what's with the we's and ours? You a Kasten or Lerner?

i'm actually Kevin Köstner, a bastard hybrid of a Kasten and a Lerner

and why should a real baseball fan care about a marketing campaign? let the marketing wizards sell tickets to casual fans however they want, everyone who cares about the nats knows the real situation (what i laid out above), and these people will not be angry with a 90 loss season

would you rather (a) have a perennially mediocre team with an incompetent owner and no real chance of ever competing in your division or (b) real hope that with a competitive payroll you'll have a solid team in two years

Originally posted by Double Hoya:

Originally posted by Shemp:
Thsat would be an excellent marketing campaign. The Nationals - this season doesn't matter at all. And what's with the we's and ours? You a Kasten or Lerner?

i'm actually Kevin Köstner, a bastard hybrid of a Kasten and a Lerner

and why should a real baseball fan care about a marketing campaign? let the marketing wizards sell tickets to casual fans however they want, everyone who cares about the nats knows the real situation (what i laid out above), and these people will not be angry with a 90 loss season

would you rather (a) have a perennially mediocre team with an incompetent owner and no real chance of ever competing in your division or (b) real hope that with a competitive payroll you'll have a solid team in two years

i understand your logic there, but I think in baseball it takes more than 2 years to build a competitive team just because it takes so much longer to develop young baseball players, in sports like basketball and hockey it can happen much faster, and for the nats to turn it around it will take free agents AND young players

I know the Nats have some young players coming but it takes years of sucking to get a top notch stable of young players (see tampa bay and milwaukee, ignore the pirates)

i bought partial season tickets this year, so will be at both opening day and opening night

So where do the Washington Nationalists call home at the moment?

hey hoya,

quit talking about the Nationals in the Orioles thread, douchebag!

<img src="http://www.hardballtimes.com/images/uploads/Orioles2.gif" alt=" - " />

Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
So where do the Washington Nationalists call home at the moment?

mankie: washington, DC :D

(specifically, RFK stadium… until next year, when the new stadium should be completed, in anacostia)

Originally posted by le sonick:
hey hoya,

quit talking about the Nationals in the Orioles thread, douchebag!

i didn't start it! d-bag!

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
I know the Nats have some young players coming but it takes years of sucking to get a top notch stable of young players (see tampa bay and milwaukee, ignore the pirates)

an interesting take on the future of the nats

Originally posted by sweetcell:

Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
So where do the Washington Nationalists call home at the moment?

mankie: washington, DC :D

(specifically, RFK stadium… until next year, when the new stadium should be completed, in anacostia)

Who paid for the new stadium…and were they the Expos that relocated.

BTW…did I see this on the t-shirt thread or on a bumber sticker down here.

"CANADA….LIVING THE AMERICAN DREAM, ONLY WITHOUT ALL THE VIOLENCE"

I like it!

Originally posted by Hoya Paranoia:
an interesting take on the future of the nats

ALOT has to go right for it to happen the way he says it could, and he never says where all the money is coming from, new stadium isnt always the revenue maker people expect, have the owners committed to spending lots? and he sure is reading a lot in to spring stats, people have been waiting for chris snelling to be a big league hitter for years

just because a team gets a new stadium, doesn't mean the team is going to be rolling in money and able to go out and compete for high level free agents. If it were then why has it taken the Brewers nearly 10 years to build a team with a chance to compete. Or even Pittsburgh, PNC Park opened in 2001 and they haven't had a competitive team in a long time. And with the crazy amount of money floating around in MLB with the revenue sharing and licensing from the DirectTV Deals, the Steinbrenners, and the wanna be Steinbrenners are gonna be throwing even more ridiculous sums of cash at people. The only way for the Nats to compete is going follow the method of the A's and Twins and develop a good farm system, which requires a tremendous amount of luck, smart management decisions, and good coaching. They need to develop a good core group of young players and then be willing to trade those players to the Yankees, Red Sox, and the other teams who still think free agency is the way to build a team. I wouldn't look for the Nats to be competitive for at least 6-7 years.