Second of all, I cannot get excited about baseball in Washington again. Many who were fans of the Senators before they left the city in 1971 for the plains of north Texas turned to the Baltimore Orioles for their baseball; and those who preferred National League action backed Atlanta. Sure, former Senators announcer Charlie Brotman can get nostalgic about the return of the American pastime to the nation's capital - while tackling an anti-Nationals protestor. "I'm crazy 'bout the Senators, and nuts about the Nats," said Brotman, but it is protestor Adam Eidinger's words - "this is a bad deal, people" - that rings in my ears with resonance.

Thirdly, there's no reason why the city of Washington couldn't continue to use RFK Stadium. They could simply extend the deal to have the Nationals play at the existing stadium indefinitely. RFK's main fault is that it is a throwback to the cookie-cutter monstrosities of the '60s. But this should be the price to be paid for baseball's return to Washington. It'd be a lot less painful - and more fair - than the current asking price being thrust at the taxpayers. But of course, mayor Anthony Williams is trying to fob Washington residents off with politico-inspired gibberish like, "Baseball is about our way of life. It's about opportunity. And now with the Nationals, it's about our nation's capital."

If "free-market" corporate enterprise wearing the mask of socialism is about opportunity and our way of life, I'd say we're screwed. Just ask the fans of Montreal about that.