The Blogosphere Plays Rough
You Stink Man!
After 34 years of spending our summers bowling and watching Knight Rider and Wonder Woman on television, after being sickened by the Orioles going to the World Series in 1979, and winning it in 1983, after almost getting the Padres in 1972, and seeing Toronto and Seattle get franchises in 1977, and later Miami, Tampa, Denver and Phoenix becoming major league towns, we now have our own warm, fuzzy, living, breathing major league baseball franchise. And not one of those cut-rate, bargain basement expansion deals with a small engine and vinyl on the seats, with teeny tires and a blah white paint job. No no no. Ours was built in 1969, when a franchise was a franchise. It's got your high torque V-8 with oversized tires, large fins and lots and lots of chrome. We took the "Oh Canada" tape out of the 8-track player that was left by the previous owner and we're now kicking back to "God Bless America." Like all classics, it sometimes gets out of tune and it backfires now and then, and doesn't always perform like it should. The transmission is a little loose and once in awhile seems to be stuck in neutral. You have to let it warm up in the morning before taking her out. Unlike those new model franchises, ours isn't economical. It's bright red paint job with blue pinstripes harkens back to a more ostentatious place in our memories. But when we finally start down the strip, we're as fast and fearless as anyone. IT JUST TAKES TIME.
I was perusing the literally hundreds of Nats blogs that exist today, and was surprised, perhaps a little disappointed, to find that a few have already attached the "U Stink" label to the team. This is wrong. That is wrong. Castilla's too old. Johnson's too slow. Wilkerson takes too many pitches. Guzman doesn't take enough. Robinson is too old school to manage any more.
Today, we're a better team than Toronto and Tampa, Detroit and Kansas City, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, Colorado and Arizona. Who else is one game under .500 so far this season? How about the Cardinals and Cubs, the Marlins and Rangers, the Athletics and Mariners and, oh yes, the Red Sox and Yankees.
The Mariners had to wait until the early 1990s for their first winning season. After 18 years, they still haven't been to a World Series. We haven't played a home game yet. The Nationals are one owner and two above average free-agent signings away from being a wild-card contender.
Fellow bloggers, I support your right to say anything you want. You are absolutely correct in your assessments of the National's limitations. But, c'mon. Have a heart. Heck, the new "franchise" smell hasn't even gone away yet.
# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 8:15 AM 
