If we were fortunate enough to make the World Series, how would you feel about playing the Nats?

[FlipTheBird]

Not sure how they are honing in it.

They have had more success in the last three seasons, than the Birds have.

Short of the fact that they won a division title in 2012 compared to the O's WC, the two teams have actually had nearly identical three-year stretches.

2012: Playoff appearance, first-round knockout.

2013: Winning record (Nats 86 wins; O's 85), no playoffs.

2014: They clinch their respective divisions on the same darn day.

All told, kinda kooky, really.

[Creamsicle]

I would love a WS between Bawlmer and Deecee. LOVE.

[PeteU]

Not likely, as season ticket holders will snap up virtually all the WS tickets.

True in principle.

However, Washington being Washington, you have a lot of season ticket holders who might be of the corporate, transient nature and bought those tickets not as much for the love of the Nationals but instead because it's a good place to schmooze. So the intensity of the fanbase isn't quite as strong as it might otherwise be.

And while going to a World Series might be neat, if those season ticket holders aren't so invested in Nationals and you have Orioles fans willing to pay crazy money to buy those seats off them for the Series, you might see a substantial amount of orange and black in the stands yet.

[PeteU]

Short of the fact that they won a division title in 2012 compared to the O's WC, the two teams have actually had nearly identical three-year stretches.

2012: Playoff appearance, first-round knockout.

2013: Winning record (Nats 86 wins; O's 85), no playoffs.

2014: They clinch their respective divisions on the same darn day.

All told, kinda kooky, really.

And besides Washington's .500 season in 2005, the teams have had an almost parallel existence since the Nationals began. Neither team did much of anything until 2012. And both teams have had the exact same number of on the field victory celebrations. While they celebrated clinching the division in 2012, we got to celebrate winning the wild card game. And then both teams took it to five games in the division series before exiting.

The only difference being, the Orioles came out with their heads high in a moral (albeit not actual) victory after the ALDS, where the Nationals NLDS was a heartbreaking devastating loss (they were within a strike of advancing to the NLCS and blew it). So arguably Orioles fans had it better in 2012.

[Winning_Season]

C'mon guys O's Nat's would just be a lot of fun! Plus the spotlight on the O's would be bigger than any other opponent due to the great story line of the Beltway Series.

and in regards to the name I think everyone just needs to accept that it would be called a beltway series even though of course there are two beltways not one.

I think its better as well because "the beltway" is a common experience to those who live all over Baltimore-Washington. I understand that the Parkway connects the two cities but unless you live directly between the two cities your not on that road much. Coming from Annapolis I have much more experience with both Beltways than I do the Parkway.

[tinamodotti]

An O's-Nats WS would be a huge win for the state of Maryland. I am all for it.

[brianod]

It would be great for this area and I would be all for it. Baltimore and Washington need to be seen as two distinct entities and that would help.

[allquixotic]

The Post has been having fun with this. Also had a front page article on Tuesday about a Nats-O's series.

The possibilities are endless. ?Beltway Series is probably the most popular choice, especially among non-critical thinkers who blithely ingest the mindless sludge fed to them by major national sports networks. The reason this doesnt work is because there are two Beltways, and they dont have much to do with each other, and so Beltways Series would make more sense, but that sounds stupid.

(I mean, Houston has a Beltway. Would an Astros-Nats series be a Beltway Series? Why not just call it a City Series? A Municipality Series? A Series Between Two Baseball Teams.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/09/17/should-a-nats-orioles-world-series-be-the-beltway-series-the-parkway-series-or-something-else/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/washington-nationals-baltimore-orioles-on-cusp-of-clinching-spots-in-mlb-playoffs/2014/09/15/4d9ae814-3aa5-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html

There's really no need to be so passive-aggressive, pedantic and literal about it. The Baltimore Beltway and the Washington Beltway are connected by both 95 and 295. In no traffic, you can go from being on one beltway to the other in about 20-25 minutes (around 22 miles from the southwest side of 695 to the northeast side of 495).

Your comparison to Houston is ridiculous. The distance between the Baltimore beltway and the Houston beltway an order of magnitude higher (or possibly two orders of magnitude, I haven't done the calculations). Baltimore and Washington are adjacent cities because there are no other cities nearly as large as them in between them. Annapolis is off to the southeast, but it's tiny in comparison. Adjacent cities tend to have overlapping fanbases, and that's exactly what we have today. There's minimal to no overlap in fanbase between the Houston metro area and the Baltimore metro area.

To suggest that people who call it the Beltway Series are "non-critical thinkers" and that "[the two beltways] dont have much to do with each other [sic]" is ridiculous. I know people who live closer to Nats Stadium than OPACY who root for the O's, and I know people who live north of Baltimore who root for the Nats. The entire Baltimore-Washington metro area is peppered with a diffuse set of people who root for either the Nats, the O's, both, or neither. There may be some correlations of distance to OPACY and fandom, but once you get more than 5 miles out of the city, I'd expect the correlations to fall into the noise.

And all of this is in a really small geographical area, in the era of cars that can get 30 - 40 mpg. I know people who commute to work in West Baltimore coming from Virginia or even Pennsylvania every day. I occasionally commute from West Baltimore to another work site in Alexandria, which is right outside DC, and I barely bat an eyelash at the commute time. These cities are nearby. It's a Beltway Series! There's really no other way to put it.

[weams]

Not sure how they are honing in it.

They have had more success in the last three seasons, than the Birds have.

How can you possibly think that? Not that I agree with the post you responded to either.

[Redskins Rick]

Short of the fact that they won a division title in 2012 compared to the O's WC, the two teams have actually had nearly identical three-year stretches.

2012: Playoff appearance, first-round knockout.

2013: Winning record (Nats 86 wins; O's 85), no playoffs.

2014: They clinch their respective divisions on the same darn day.

All told, kinda kooky, really.

Yes very kooky and thanks for the research, and my memory is wrong. I will admit it. However, I still do not believe they are honing in. Of course, just IMO.

How can you possibly think that? Not that I agree with the post you responded to either.

Geeze, I had a brain fart, it happens. When you get old, your memory fails at time.

[CP0861]

They have FP' date=' 97 mph heater from Kershaw or 3 hours of FP on the mic, both very hazardous when not ready for it.[/quote']

how does he still have a job by the way? every time i hear that guy, I seriously wanna vomit. NO CLUE how even the nats fans can possibly tolerate him.

[Frobby]

True in principle.

However, Washington being Washington, you have a lot of season ticket holders who might be of the corporate, transient nature and bought those tickets not as much for the love of the Nationals but instead because it's a good place to schmooze. So the intensity of the fanbase isn't quite as strong as it might otherwise be.

And while going to a World Series might be neat, if those season ticket holders aren't so invested in Nationals and you have Orioles fans willing to pay crazy money to buy those seats off them for the Series, you might see a substantial amount of orange and black in the stands yet.

I expect to see some orange and black, I just don't expect it to be anything like those regular season games. I hope we get the chance to find out.

[Malike]

There's really no need to be so passive-aggressive, pedantic and literal about it. The Baltimore Beltway and the Washington Beltway are connected by both 95 and 295. In no traffic, you can go from being on one beltway to the other in about 20-25 minutes (around 22 miles from the southwest side of 695 to the northeast side of 495).

Your comparison to Houston is ridiculous. The distance between the Baltimore beltway and the Houston beltway an order of magnitude higher (or possibly two orders of magnitude, I haven't done the calculations). Baltimore and Washington are adjacent cities because there are no other cities nearly as large as them in between them. Annapolis is off to the southeast, but it's tiny in comparison. Adjacent cities tend to have overlapping fanbases, and that's exactly what we have today. There's minimal to no overlap in fanbase between the Houston metro area and the Baltimore metro area.

To suggest that people who call it the Beltway Series are "non-critical thinkers" and that "[the two beltways] dont have much to do with each other [sic]" is ridiculous. I know people who live closer to Nats Stadium than OPACY who root for the O's, and I know people who live north of Baltimore who root for the Nats. The entire Baltimore-Washington metro area is peppered with a diffuse set of people who root for either the Nats, the O's, both, or neither. There may be some correlations of distance to OPACY and fandom, but once you get more than 5 miles out of the city, I'd expect the correlations to fall into the noise.

And all of this is in a really small geographical area, in the era of cars that can get 30 - 40 mpg. I know people who commute to work in West Baltimore coming from Virginia or even Pennsylvania every day. I occasionally commute from West Baltimore to another work site in Alexandria, which is right outside DC, and I barely bat an eyelash at the commute time. These cities are nearby. It's a Beltway Series! There's really no other way to put it.

You do know he was quoting an article and they weren't his own words right? Unless he wrote the article, and then I guess your reply would be fine.

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

[TonySoprano]

6 of the 10 playoff teams could be regional rivalries

BAL-WAS

LAA-LAD

SFG-OAK

Surprisingly, media darling Oakland could fall off the list. Since the media canonized Billy Beane at the July trade deadline, his team is 17-27, losing 13.5 games in the standings to the Angels.

Too bad, so sad NYY-NYM, CHW-CHC no soup for you

[Redskins Rick]

As much as I want the Nationals to win, for the location.

Personally, I believe all NL playoff roads go through St. Louis.