THOM LOVERRO: Thom Loverro: In Houston, house that District built – The Wash. Examiner
With the Washington Nationals visiting the Houston Astros, Loverro reminds us that the D.C. area was used as leverage by several teams to get new ballparks built. The Astros came the closest to moving here around 1995. I was in college so I could not follow that as closely, but I recall seeing that Astros owner John McMullen had a handshake agreement with Bill Collins to move the team to the area. The plan was to have it play in RFK Stadium until a stadium could get built in Northern Virginia. Collins had previously tried to win a team in the 1991 expansion for D.C., a team that would be called the Washington Nationals. I remember the graphic in The Post for it — an eagle holding a bat with one of its talons. Collins later determined, incorrectly it would turn out, that D.C. couldn’t get a team, so he re-focused his efforts on Northern Virginia. If I recall correctly, Collins was the chairman of Cellular One and had been a Senators batboy at one point. I’d love to hear what Collins has to say about the drive to bring baseball back and reached out to Loverro about the topic.
Loverro also notes that the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates used D.C. as leverage to get new ballparks. As I recall, the Mariners used Tampa Bay more though, while I don’t think the Pirates ever seriously threatened a D.C. move, though I think it was Thomas Boswell told a story Jack Kent Cooke apparently calling up John Galbreath and asking “how much would you like for you ball team?” The Squire may have just been playing with Boswell though.
Prior to 2004, the closest D.C. came to getting baseball back was when San Diego Padres nearly moved in 1973.
Meanwhile, back in the present, the Nats are back at .500 after beating the Astros late, here is the MLB video recap. Ryan Zimmerman went the other way for a homer and the game-winning RBI which is no longer an official statistic.
Stephen Strasburg is holding back and throwing 95 MPH fastballs. I still don’t expect to see him reach D.C. this year, they are going to be VERY cautious with him.
Oh yeah, Boswell’s chat from yesterday, in case you missed it.