Y'all are dead wrong about this. This really is a hurtful topic in my home town. How come after 30 years nobody has any sympathy for the fans down here after their team was yanked away by a greedy owner? It's about time baseball returned to Washington D.C. Fans in other locations should understand that this could happen to your team (what happened in D.C.).
What if they moved the Red Sox? Who would you root for then? And, what if they didn't bring a team back until 30 years later? Would you support the new team? When several years of losing seasons occurs, and it could happen, any team is vulnerable to an owners decision to relocate. That is what happened in D.C. And, after years of losing seasons, the Senators under the management of Ted Williams actually broke .500 and there was much hope for the future.
Baseball was in D.C. twice times as long as Montreal and Toronto combined, so it's time to bring it back home. If Montreal deserves a team, then they ought to buy the tickets and support them and they wouldn't be in this mess.
The Washington Senators had been Washington's team for many many years until Bob Short moved them to Texas. They were my team, my family's team, and many others that lived in my neighborhood. When they moved, their attendance records were much better than Montreal's, and Baltimore packed their stands because they were perennial playoff contenders. After the Senators moved, I became an Orioles fan eventually because they became the only game in town. Now that we have baseball back, I'll still support the Orioles and have no problem supporting the new team. It's nice having both an AL and NL team here. There are many folks that were very bitter about the Senators leaving and did not support the Orioles and instead fought since then for baseball to return. Why should the Orioles owner have a monoploy on the market here in D.C.? Maybe if he put out a winner he wouldn't have to worry about losing fans. Years ago, they were both AL teams and the markets were fine. Winning fills the stands, so if both teams won on a regular basis, both stadiums would be filled. There are plenty of people in the Washington/Baltimore area to support teams. After all, there is a football team in each town and both receive plenty of support.
And, about fickle fans, there are many of them. There are a lot of fly by night Red Sox and Yankees fans down here, but if those teams stop losing then you'll see them jump on some other bandwagon. I am still proud of being a Washington Senators fan.
By the way, here's another interesting thing to note. The Texas Rangers own the rights to the Senators name, so the new D.C. team can't even have that name. Now that is a bunch of BS!
