What's Your Feeling Towards the Nationals?

[Frobby]

I have tickets to the Nats 5 times a year, as part of a group. When we have our ticket draft, I try to get as many of the O's-Nats series as I can grab, and I root for the O's at those games.

I'd be happy if the Nats were contenders. I care much more about the Orioles, but I'd like to have a little local excitement wherever it comes from.

[The Maestro]

I voted for the Jealous of the Nationals choice because of their ability to draft and develop young talent and the ownerships willingness to spend money on his team.

Wait....what? That wasn't an option?

[Stotle]

Good organization heading in the right direction. Baltimore had a huge head start some three or four years ago and Washington has easily passed the O's as an organization over the past 12 months or so.

[Woody Held]

I'm pretty ambivalent about the Nat's. I went to one O's game there and the seats we had had terrible sight lines. I fear if they do good they will cause our attendance to continue to spiral down, and because of that have our intrusive owner do something stupid.

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.248853,-76.730477

[Orioles0615]

I hate the Nats, people ask me all the time why. And I say well why do all these "loyal" Raven fans hate the redskins? Well there is your answer. I also cannot stand O's fans who say I am going to go start cheering for the Nats, because I am sure if there so called beloved Ravens sucked I am sure they would love to go jump on the redskin bandwagon.

[Orioles0615]

I also don't agree when people praise there drafting and developing and then name, Harper, Renden, and Strausberg as examples. They didnt draft and develop them, they sucked for 2 years and got lucky with the first pick in the draft and picked 99% rate success guys, who I still hope will flop.

[ScottP]

I like Mike Rizzo a lot - anyone who can clean up the mess that Bowden left behind, maintain his sanity dealing with back-to-back #1 overall picks represented by Boras, pry the Lerner's wallets open enough to spend (maybe misspend) on Werth and LaRoche, have a manager quit on him in the midst of a winning streak and end up with Davey Johnson in the dugout, is okay by me. Looks like a team heading in the right direction; we should be so fortunate.

[Sports Guy]

I just don't care about them.

But I do respect what they are doing down there and I would love to trade organizations, ownership, etc with them.

[MarylandAaron]

I don't exactly consider them an enemy to the O's, but I always find myself rooting against them. I try to think of them as just another neutral team, but deep down I think I dislike them and am biased against them. I guess I'm just worried that they're going to become successful much before the O's ever do.

[byrdz]

I also have an NL team and if I lived closer to Va they might be my NL team of choice.

[NewMarketSean]

I already follow them from a distance but I think I might go to as many if not more Nats games than O's games this year depending on how the season shakes out.

[glenn__davis]

Just another team to me. Using Scrat1's rating system above, they'd be a 0.

I did like them when they were the Expos, just because of the uniqueness of that team.

I've never been one to have multiple teams or a team in each league. For me, you have one team. You can sort of like other teams too, but there's really just the one team that you care about. But that is just my view and I know others feel differently.

[NewMarketSean]

Just another team to me. Using Scrat1's rating system above, they'd be a 0.

I did like them when they were the Expos, just because of the uniqueness of that team.

Yup. I was an Expos fan growing up just because they were such an odd team. Them becoming the Nationals has allowed me to retain some of that fandom but it really hasn't translated the way I thought it would. If they are a fun team to watch this year, that may change a bit.

[lovetoaster]

I view them as an enemy of sorts, although I can see how people can disagree with me. I grew up in Fredericksburg, Va., so if there were a franchise in D.C. when I was growing up, I probably would be rooting for them now, but there wasn't. I grew up idolizing the Orioles and it is something that I just can't give up, as so many people in Northern Virginia and D.C. have. I know that is has been a difficult stretch for the Orioles, but I just can't turn my hat in for another as so many have done.

I know the Orioles got a great deal with MASN when the Nats came to town, but moving that franchise into the area took a lot of media coverage, fans and ultimately money away from the Orioles. I view the Nationals as taking things away from the Orioles, and people can say "win and all of that will come back;" but I am not so sure. Even if we go back to being a winning franchise, which will happen, even with as much life as the last decade and a half has sucked out of this franchise, I don't know if we will ever get back to the way that it was at OPACY in the mid-to-late 90's when it was actually difficult to get a ticket sometimes. Having another franchise that close in an area that is not New York, Chicago or L.A. is difficult. So I view it as a rivalry. We are battling for a regional title of sorts, and the Orioles need to get with the program because we are falling behind rapidly.

The other thing that makes me view them as an enemy more than I probably should is their fans. Man, what an obnoxious bunch for a team that really has not accomplished anything. At least the ones I encounter on a regular basis talk a lot of trash for a team that has finished in last place in all but two years of their existence. Their most impressive accomplishment so far is being bad enough to draft Strasburg and Harper. I know that we have only not finished last three times in that same timespan, but I do not go out of my way to talk trash. It just bothers me that a lot of these people are the same ones that were wearing Orioles hats a few years ago, but now act like they are Ohio State and we are Michigan. You rooted for the team you are talking trash about just a few years ago, Ace.

I also am not a big fan of their stadium. I just love baseball stadiums and theirs just feels like a shopping mall with a stadium in the middle of it. I know you have to have other attractions at a stadium, but there are so many things there that distract from what is actually going on during the game. It just does not make sense to me. And maybe OPACY has spoiled me, but I just don't think there is anything distinctive about Nats Park. It is OK, but there is nothing that makes me want to go back.

[SammyBirdland]

Right or wrong, whenever someone tells me they are a Nationals fan (I've met one so far), I think to myself "so you don't like baseball, eh?". To me it's the equivalent of offering someone a beer and being told they only like wine coolers.

I know that sounds strange coming from an Orioles fan, seeing as the Orioles barely qualify as a professional baseball team, but that's what my brain thinks.