Let's wait and see how baseball plays out in D.C.
After 34-year absence, excitement, nervousness rules day
MSNBC |
 |
 |
Thomas Boswell Columnist |
The joys and fears of civic childbirth will meet at RFK Stadium on Thursday night when a regular season major league baseball game is played in this city for the first time after a 34-year gestation.
The president will throw out the first pitch, symbolic of the pomp and power of the nation's capital that the sport spurned for so long. Enormous cheers of vindication, relief and simple pleasure will fill the air after a third-of-a-century rain delay. But mixed in the tumult will be the same tremors of doubt and concern about the future that attend the arrival of every new infant.
The Washington Nationals, longed for by many in this area for several barren decades, are this city's fragile adopted child.
In a few years, the Nats may be healthy and strong, playing in a new, $580 million ballpark on the Anacostia waterfront with the U.S. Capitol framed in center field. With luck, the economic impact of the team, its fans and its park may lead to a revitalization of an entire neglected, barely utilized section of Southeast Washington. The same model has worked elsewhere. The new twist in Washington, because of its unique geography, is that millions of suburban dollars may be lured to downtown, then spent there.
Unless it isn't.
That is the intense drama of the Nationals. It is a story that already goes far beyond the diamonds of baseball into the shaping of the capital city in a new century. In coming years, the Nationals will do well or ill, prosper or founder, be a boon to the town, including many who never attend a game, or else prove a drain on resources, and an embarrassment on the field.
In other words, the Nationals may become something akin to what the Red Sox are to Boston or the Giants to San Francisco. The huge outpouring of Nationals interest throughout the region in recent months, manifested in unexpectedly high ticket and merchandise sales, makes it perfectly plausible that the new team could be a huge success.
In recent weeks, as the strong pulse of baseball interest has beaten louder and louder, top baseball officials have become more concerned about the future of the Orioles than the Nationals. It's as though, after a generation of ignoring demographics, the sport has finally figured out that Washington is the definition of a "major market," while Baltimore is distinctly mid-sized.
However, while the current evidence points toward Washington being a baseball success, the proposition is still far from a certainty. No one, including commissioners, has ever been able to predict the long-term viability of new or relocated teams.
When baseball expanded in '93, snubbing Washington and choosing Miami and Denver, the consensus was that Miami would be a huge success, but picking Denver might be a mistake. Instead, the Rockies drew 4.4 million fans, still the record. After many poor seasons, Colorado still drew 615,000 more fans last year than the Marlins, who had just won the World Series. Denver loves baseball, even if it stinks. Miami couldn't care less, even if you win the pennant. If almost everyone in baseball could be utterly wrong about Denver and Miami, nobody can really be sure about Washington. Early ticket sales or not.
The hushed undercurrent of this opener is the ancient haunt that the new Nationals will simply recapitulate the sadness of two departed Senators franchises. It's an illogical fear in the country's eighth-largest market, one that now ranks No. 1 in education and disposable income. This time, however, the stakes are higher. If a third team fails, a half-billion dollar structure near South Capitol Street would symbolize the brutal dashing of many high hopes and well-intentioned motives.
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM SPORTS |
 Sports Section Front |
| Add Sports headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links