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Battle of the Beltway 2007

I brought this topic up last year after my trip to see the Orioles play at RFK Stadium. With the Battle of the Beltway starting up again tomorrow it seemed like a good time to rehash my thoughts from the inaugural event.

The only thing I could recall though when looking back at last year’s Nationals - Orioles sereies was the silly name they came up with for the thing.

The Battle of the Beltway!

And then I laughed hysterically at how silly that moniker is.

Before I get deeper into this discuss about the Washington series, let me just say that I can’t talk about the final game of the Toronto series, or the first two games of it for that matter, because I’ll just snap if I do. But I’ve got you covered. Here’s a post just for your comments about the game for you to vent out your frustrations.  

There’s also speculation that Sam Perlozzo might get canned today. If that happens, rest assured we’ll talk about it on Oriole Magic later today. But for now, I’m on this business of the Battle of the Beltway.

I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen in the actual games of the Nationals series just yet. The Nationals are dreadful, but play hard scrappy baseball. The Orioles are talented but have been playing like it’s a chore to show up at the ballpark.

I dread the idea of losing 2 of 3 to one of the worst clubs in the majors just because they came out with more fire and passion, so I’m not even going to discuss it. Heathir Irvin will hook us up with the preview of the series tomorrow, and we can all get back into the ballas and strikes of the game then.

Today, I want to discuss the unintentional humor of MLB trying to make this Nationals - Orioles thing into some huge rivalry by giving it the lamest name ever. Why? Because it makes me laugh, and after this week of Orioles baseball, I need a good laugh!  

Major League Baseball loves to create these marketing gimmicks for certain match ups. The Subway Series in New York is catchy. The Chicago Classic has a nice ring to it. The Battle by the Bay out in Oakland holds some meaning. But the Battle of the Beltway? I was embarrassed to be a part of this last year!

What follows are my thoughts as I penned them last year.

As my buddy Jason pointed out while the Oriole Bird was dancing on the Nationals’ dugout, if it’s a real rivalry you can’t bring your mascot. (This applies to Tampa Bay as well, divisional foe or not) Having the Oriole Bird there negated this being a rivalry game.

If it were a real rivalry game the Bird costume wouldn’t have made it out of the stadium in one piece. You think the Ravens could take Edgar, Allen, and Poe to Pittsburgh and bring them home safely?

Instead this ‘rivalry’ was about as intense as a snail race. Everyone at the game was there with a fan of the other team. Families were split down the middle between O’s and Nats fans. Friends came as large groups dressed in both red and orange. I myself was there with a group of 8 people, 4 O’s fans 4 Nats fans. (Click on the photo for a larger version)

This is not a rivalry. It’s just not. There most animosity anyone has about this thing is the Nationals fans toward the owner of the team they used to root for. And hell, us Oriole fans have that same animosity! It’s practically something to bond over!

Rivals don’t do this. You’ve seen Red Sox - Yankee games on TV (and if you haven’t you clearly don’t own a TV since there’s practically a Red Sox / Yankees channel on cable running 24/7. You might know it as ESPN).

Have you ever seen Red Sox and Yankee fans sitting quietly together talking about the game? Nope. It’s never happened. Even in the Subway Series where Yankees and Mets fans might show up to the game together because they are neighbors, there’s no love to be shared until the last out is recorded.

So lets stop trying to call this Baltimore - Washington thing a rivalry. It has all the excitement of a minor league exhibition game. It’s an enjoyable day at the ballpark to see a game, but that’s about it.

And the name they came up for it. Battle of the Beltway. Give me a break. There’s 495 and 695. Which beltway are we talking about here? Do we average them together and call it the Battle of 595? How does this work?

In order for it to be the Battle of the Beltway the two teams would have to reside near the same beltway, not two different beltways 30 miles apart from one another. This is just the lamest marketing strategy since Leo Mazzone’s now infamous “The time is now, the place is now!”

For once, I dont’ blame the Orioles for this marketing flop. It’s not that I think they’d have come up with something much better. It’s that this one is the product of the public relations deviants at Major League Baseball.

The problem here is that a group of people working for MLB who’ve probably never been to either Baltimore or DC came up with the Battle of the Beltway slogan thinking it was catcy, but without any understanding of the meaning the theme would have with us locals.

What is the meaning? Nothing.

They could have called it something like the Cheasapeake Challenge or the National Angelos Haters Convention, and the fans would feel more connected to it.

But that’s not to be. Instead we’ve got the Battle of the Beltway for the 2nd year in a row. T shirts aren’t being sold by the case load for this event because no one cares. (But from what I understand the DC classic “Angelos can suck deez Nats” shirts are still a hot seller.)

In any case, I enjoy the Orioles - Nationals games. I don’t see them as a rivalry in any way. Perhaps one day if the two teams meet in the World Series it would make for a great rivalry in the seasons afterward, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

MLB could also swap the Devil Ray and Nationals and make this a more enticing draw, but they won’t.

What the Battle of the Beltway ends up being is a place where Nationals and Orioles fans can gather as one large group and chant ‘Angelos Sucks’ at the top of their lungs.

It’s friendly and communal.

And I’m okay with that. It’s a nice break in the season from Oriole Park being flooded by Yankee and Red Sox fans that we all despise. This weekend, we’ll all head down to RFK and meet some DC natives that want to talk about the glory days of Orioles Baseball. In a few weeks they’ll all trek up here to Camden Yards to do the same thing. (Lord knows you’ll be able to get plenty of tickets at either park)

It’s a nice series. I enjoy it. But it’s no rivalry.

The big news of the day though is that come 2008, the Orioles will be as cool as the Nationals are when they come to Oriole Park wearing Washington emblazoned across their jerseys, as the Birds have apparently submitted paperwork to MLB to change their 2008 road jerseys to say BALTIMORE! Read about it here!

Don’t forget to catch The Beltway Baseball Show this weekend! (It’s okay if we call our podcast that. We’re talking about two separate teams that are near two separate beltways. We make full acknowlegement that there is no battle for either.)

No matter if you’re an O’s or Nats fan, whatever Anthony and James talk about is going to be mostly about your favorite team this week! So be sure to download the show. It promises to be one of the best yet!

Nats and O’s fans from Photobucket.com user Oceanoh

Veratek - A Rod photo from TheSunBlog.com

695 Sign from Millerandzois.com

RFK Photo from Deadspin.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 1:00 am and is filed under Peter Angelos, Oriole Magic!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.