Dammit. If there's one thing I hate to admit, it's jealousy.

And if there's one object of jealousy I really, really hate to admit, it's Washington, DC.

But it's true. I'm jealous of Washington. Why wouldn't I be?

Only 40 miles apart, Baltimore and DC couldn't be more different. Baltimore has lived in Washington's shadow for as long as DC has bothered to cast one. And though Baltimore's an infinitely cooler city than Washington, it's not, y'know, the capital (oh, excuse me, 'capitol') of anything. It's very much a home town, an odd city that's given us cultural icons like John Waters and Artie Donovan. Here's really all you need to know about the two cities: Baltimore's got The Wire. Washington's got 'Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room.'

But the Redskins are still in the playoff mix. The Ravens haven't won since Columbus Day and, a week and a half ago, lost to Miami, a sorry feat no one else in the league has managed so far. And though I root for the Wizards, any time they have a decent season, I get mad when I remember that they used to be the Baltimore Bullets. The Wiz even retired Earl Monroe's jersey this month — and the Pearl never once played a game in DC. Nerve.

For years, Baltimore could take a little heart in knowing that DC baseball fans had to root for the Orioles, just like I have to root for the Wizards. And then suddenly, though no big league baseball franchise had relocated since DC's last baseball team decamped to Dallas, the Montreal Expos picked up and moved to RFK Stadium.

And, just as suddenly, they have a pretty interesting team at the other end of the parkway. They have a new ballpark. They have a GM who's shufflin' it around a little. They have an interesting story line: can cool guy Manny Acta make solid citizens out of reclamation projects like Dmitri Young, Elijah Dukes, Paul Lo Duca and Lastings Milledge? Except for Joe Angel, they even have better announcers than the Oriole...

Read the full post at Bugs and Cranks

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