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A vehicle for venting on philosophy, religion, and the general state of things. Proprietor: C. W. Powell

Thursday, September 30, 2004

The Washington Times -- America's Newspaper: "Major League Baseball announced yesterday that the Montreal Expos will move to the District, in one day turning 33 years of frustration and heartache for the Washington area into unbridled joy."
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This may be the best news of the week. If Teddy and the rest will go to a baseball game once in a while, they will have that much less time to mess around with the nation.

This writer grew up in the golden age of baseball. Many and many an afternoon I was glued to the radio, static and all, listening to those great Yankee teams [Ahh... Yogi, Vic, Allie, Whitey, Hank, Phil, Bobby, Joe, Mickey, etc] beating the tar our of the Washington Senators [Washington: First in War, First in Peace, Last in the American League].

In those good old days, the Yankees could use teams like the St. Louis Browns as a farm team, making trades if by chance St. Louis got a good player, to help them with the run for the pennant. There was no socialism in baseball, the rich got richer and the poor got clobbered on a regular basis. I was an unabashed Yankee fan: it was a lot more fun when they won 20-2 than when they won 1-0. I have always loved winners since then--no rooting for the underdog in my psyche. I could never have been a Red Sox or a Cub fan. Who goes to hell on purpose? My best friend was a Cleveland fan, and I felt sorry for him.

Losers like the Washington Senator had a role to play in the cosmic meaning of things: the elevation of the New York Yankees at the top of the baseball world, which meant beating up on the real Dodgers in the World Series; Yogi was better than Roy, Phil was better than Pee Wee, Hank was better than Gil, Joe and then Mickey were better than anyone, and Whitey, Allie, and Vic could pitch a whole game day after day after day, and the Yankees would humilitate the likes of Don Newcombe in spite of his 30 wins. Relief pitchers were has-beens that only got into the game after it was won or lost.

The teams were the same year after year; no socialist dream of parity; and no free aqency. You could afford tickets for the whole family, but I couldn't go, of course: there were no teams within 1500 miles of southern Oregon. But I was glued to the radio whenever I could. My first games on television were the 1956 World Series--Don's perfect game and Yogi Berri destroying Newcombe in the 7th game. A..ah!


So bring back the Senators. Congress will be better, and baseball will be better, especially if the new Senators are as awful as the old ones were.

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