I enjoy [especially after a win] reading the beat reporters for the Nationals opposition after the game. It gives me an opportunity to see what the other team really thinks about the Nationals. Oh, to our faces, they say all the right things, "the stadium looks great," "your team has a lot of talent," and my favorite, "the uniforms are a lot nicer this year." But when you read their local papers, things aren't quite as rosy. The Braves reporters, for example, blamed the "poor conditions" of RFK Stadium for their poor play against the Nationals this year. I'm wondering, though, how did we beat the Braves in Atlanta two out of three if the conditions at Turner Field was so perfect? Hmmm....

So, it was with interest that I did a Google search for newspapers in Oakland, California. I really wasn't even sure if they had any; more likely, the San Francisco papers would carry their stories. No, I was wrong. The Oakland Tribune seems to be a fairly substantial newspaper based on their on-line content. So I clicked on the headline, "Oakland Nat-ily Retired in Loss At RFK," and began to read. The first slap at the team and the stadium was a couple of sentences into the story. The writer reported that Ray Fosse, who had played in RFK Stadium 34 years ago as a member of the A's, walked into the visitor's clubhouse and said "with a smile, 'nothing has changed.'" Slap slap. Well, Ray, that was a nice try. Only one problem: 34 years ago, the visitors clubhouse was the Senators' clubhouse. For the first time in RFK history, Washington's baseball team is using the 3rd base clubhouse as theirs [because of having to share the stadium with DC United]. Go to the Nats' MLB website, and take a look at the panorama pix of the clubhouse. I distinctly remember the pictures of the clubhouse taken during those last years the Senators were here. That aint the same clubhouse. Slap slap. The rest of the story was fairly benign, though the writer went out of his way to say that the first place Nationals have been outscored during the season. Slap slap.

I noticed another article entitled "Interleague Series From Hell..." and I just had to check that story out. Again, at the top of the story, the boys from Oakland took yet another swipe. It began with the fact that it makes no sense for the A's and the Nationals to be playing each other. I'm cool with that. From there, however, it turned cold.

Macha is in his customary froth about it, as you might expect. Talking about
playing in the decayed mosh pit that is RFK Stadium against a club totally
foreign to him, the A's manager told mlb.com, "I guess it will be interesting."

Hmmm. RFK Stadium, a place that this writer likely has never been to, either before or after the renovation, refers to our home park as a "decayed mosh pit." I'm thinking that, based on the mosh pit reference, this writer must be all thats left of a someone who spent too much time in Bay Area bars in the 1980s. Slap slap.

Now, I've been to their ballpark. If our stadium is a cookie-cutter stadium, then theirs is a cookie-cutter stadium gone bad, a park that was innocuous in its infancy, but today is more reminiscent of the football-baseball multi-purpose parks that no one uses anymore. Hey, wait a minute. Oakland's park IS a football-baseball multi-purpose park. Oops. Sorry guys. Slap slap.

The writer calls a trip to Washington D.C. to be part of an "Interleague series from hell." Now see, I don't understand that. Washington D.C. is perhaps the most powerful, most influential city in the world, full of museums, monuments and men and women of power. It's the perfect city for baseball players to spend a few hours strolling the mall, visiting the Smithsonian, or even sitting in the gallery and watching our legislators at work. But I guess I have to remember, these guys are from Oakland. See, Oakland IS a mosh pit. Period. Their idea of a good time is going to San Francisco. Slap slap.

Oakland is the middle-class cousin of San Francisco. Sitting across the bay from one of America's most famous and favorite cities, Oakland is ... well ... it's just there. It does seem to do a good job of keeping the topsoil from blowing away, though. The city isn't known for anything special, save some riots in the late 1960s. When A's owner Charley Finley moved the team from Kansas City to Oakland, most baseball fans said, "Where's Oakland?" I wonder how many people say, "Where is Washington?" Most people think that Washington was the worst draw of any professional baseball team in history, but NEWSFLASH: Many of the smallest crowds ever recorded in modern MLB history were in the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. In 1979, the A's drew 653 fans for a game against the Seattle Mariners. C'mon, the Senators at least drew a few thousand per game. Slap slap.

I don't mean to take swipes at a city that is still searching for its soul. I understand their feelings of inferiority; they must look across the bay bridges to see a city that dwarfs them economically and physically. It's kind of how Baltimore feels about Washington. I feel for them. But let's be real. A Renovated RFK is every bit as good as their park, probably better in many ways. And remember, we're moving in 3 years. Our city is more glamorous, more important and more well known. Do the French hate America because of who lives in Oakland? Are the terrorists trying to blow up targets of value in Oakland? No, because they aren't any. Are recent college graduates flocking to Oakland in search of fame and fortune? No. Oakland is one of those cities that people can't wait to leave. I guess it's no wonder that that both writers from the Oakland Tribune felt the need to take a swipe at our city and our stadium.

Hey Oakland ... two words for you: Slap slap.