America At Large: Major League Baseball convened a press conference in Washington yesterday to announce that the nation's capital will have a team of its own for the first time in 33 years.
The vagabond Montreal Expos, who have been operating under the aegis of the 29 other MLB owners (and for the past two years played a peripatetic schedule that included home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico) played their final game before a paltry crowd at Stade Olympique last night, and even as the citizenry - some of them, anyway - of Washington celebrated, it was a bittersweet adieu for the Québécois, who never managed to embrace another country's national pastime.
I can recall attending a game in Montreal a quarter-century ago and being startled when, in the midst of the pre-game ceremonies, the audience interrupted a rendition of O, Canada by suddenly erupting in boos, whistles, and cat-calls. When I reflected my bafflement, a Canadian colleague explained that the crowd had reflected its displeasure because the scoreboard was displaying the English, rather than the French, words to the dual-language national anthem.
Montreal had a long history with successful minor league teams - it was there in 1946 that the Brooklyn Dodgers assigned Jackie Robinson for seasoning in preparation for their assault on the "color line" (the racial segregation of players into separate leagues) a year later - but the cultural gulf in the end proved its undoing. A city of committed ice hockey fans was never fully able to embrace baseball, and, ironically, it is left for the moment with neither sport, the National Hockey League having locked out its players in what could well be a season-long labour dispute.
But baseball, having deserted Washington on two other occasions, faces a potentially rocky road this time around as well. Two locations in suburban Virginia, as well as interests in Las Vegas, Mexico, and Portland, Oregon, had made up the short list of relocation sites, and while it is clear that MLB followed the path of least resistance, that doesn't mean that there will be no resistance.
The District of Columbia's successful bid was contingent upon, among other things, the construction of a new, taxpayer-funded stadium which is supposed to be completed in three years' time. The first order of business following yesterday's announcement will be to rush the financial package through the incumbent City Council, whose terms expire on December 31st.
The new Council members won't be elected for another month, but the leader of the pack is Marion Barry, the 68-year-old former Washington mayor, the third of whose four terms was interrupted by a jail sentence after he was apprehended in a drug sting which caught him smoking crack on videotape. Earlier this month, Barry sailed to victory in the Democratic primary, which, given the demographic profile of Washington, virtually guarantees election.
And Barry's campaign pledge was that a taxpayer-funded stadium would be built "over my dead body". Relocation of the club to Washington had also faced strong opposition from Orioles owner Peter Angelos, whose team plays just 40 miles away in Baltimore. Given his silence of late, you may take it that Angelos (who devoted more time and energy this summer to his sponsorship of the Greek national baseball team after the US failed to qualify for the Athens Games) has been handsomely, if quietly, compensated.
The plan unveiled yesterday calls for a $440-million package that would include construction of a new ball park along a stretch of the malodorous Anacostia River, less than a dozen blocks south of the Capitol building. Also included is a $13 million refurbishment package to upgrade Robert F Kennedy Stadium, where the team would play for the next three seasons. (Since the NFL Redskins fled to their new stadium in the Maryland suburbs several years ago, RFK has lain all but fallow, with Major League Soccer's DC United the sole tenant.).
The agreement unveiled yesterday remains contingent upon the approval of three-fourths of the baseball owners, as well as the outcome of still-impending litigation brought by the limited partners of former Expos owner Jeffrey Loria who were displeased by the terms of the 2002 MLB takeover.
A charter member of the American League, the Washington Senators played in the nation's capital from 1901 until 1960, when the club was relocated to Minnesota and became the Twins. Under the threat of anti-trust legislation, baseball responded by creating an expansion franchise, which opened play the following season. The "new" Washington Senators survived for a decade before they in turn were uprooted and moved to Texas, where in 1972 they became the Rangers, a club eventually purchased and presided over by a frustrated sports fan named George W Bush.
Unlike the previous two incarnations, the latest Washington team will play in the National League, and, unless some accommodation can be reached with Bush's successors in Texas, will not be called the Senators. The Rangers regime apparently purchased and retains ownership of that name - and for some bewildering reason, includes original Washington Senators' achievements in its compilation of team records.
Since the bidding process will take some time, it appears likely that the team will still be operated by MLB when it opens play next spring. Even a homeless franchise with a record of failure has considerable value, and the ownership price tag could well top $300 million.
Meanwhile, more pressing matters are at hand: Senator Kerry and the former President of the Texas Rangers engage in their first face-to-face debate tonight. At stake will be the right to throw out the first ball at RFK next April.
