I am of two minds when it comes to baseball. I have a deep affection for the game itself, its history, the ups and the downs, the whole 9 yards. But let’s be frank for a minute here:

The Nationals are six and a half innings into their first game (and likely their first loss of the season) and all I can find on the Nationals Website are press releases that serve one purpose and purpose alone: blowing sunshine up our asses. There’s a paean to Mark Lerner’s first opening day as the owner of a baseball team. There’s a love letter from Dontrelle Willis (wait, doesn’t he play for Florida?) and how much he likes DC (too bad we can’t talk to him about moving up here…) and an article about how glad the team is that they don’t have to move this season.

Wow guys, I’m so glad that you’re skirting the issue that the Nationals are going to be a historically bad baseball team. As in, give a run for the money to 62 Mets for sheer infamy in the annals of the game. As in, Good God, I hope we win 60 games this year. Or, “please God, can there be a rainout tomorrow?” bad. This team’s depths are entirely the doing of hapless GM Jimmy Bowden and his absolutely, positively inept front office. I need only turn you to the page in history, just last year, where we let Alfonso Soriano go to the highest bidder in exchange for…
Read more

Alfonso Soriano stole his fortieth base last night in the second inning in front of a lackluster crowd at RFK last night. When he stood up and asked for time, he became the fourth man in the history of the game of baseball to steal 40 bases and hit 40 homers in a single season, joining the likes of Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. Soriano is likely the least controversial of these figures, his only sin is being unhappy with his position, not the drugs and spousal abuse and arrests that plagued Canseco in Oakland, or the steroids/balco scandal surrounding Barry Bonds, or the constant money discussion with regard to A-Rod.

Soriano goes out there, despite a team that is bad on a good day, and absolutely shines in the lights of RFK. Jim Bowden, re-sign Alfonso Soriano now. If you let him go, it will be an absolute crime.

Yesterday’s Post highlighted some fun comments from MoCo police:

August 2004: “In their country [in Africa] they would get shot for talking back to the police. By the way the international sign for ‘get the [expletive] on the ground’ is a gun pointed at you by a uniform police officer.”

The comments were made on the Union’s Message Board, which is not visible to the public. Of course, the Police Chief’s unhappy about the whole thing, and Hello MoCo has the best summary so far:

• Police Chief: Shut down the message board!

• Doug Duncan: There’s no room for “racism, bigotry and hatred” in the police department.
• The union: We’re not shutting it down, the board has a legitimate purpose. Don’t forget about free speech.
• NAACP chapter: Officers told us about concerns regarding the message board; not much was done about it.
• Casa of Maryland: “Outrage.”

So, should the message board, which isn’t public, be shut down? Well, free speech says No, it shouldn’t. Common sense, though, says, “Hey Guys, Generally, it’s a bad idea to say things on the internets that you wouldn’t say in front of a crowded room.”

I pondered posting earlier in the week about the blogfight going on between the WaPo’s ombudsman and Media Matters but decided it was a little too net-centric for us. I try to err on the side of caution there since I’m a high-order nerd and some of my obsessions are a little rarified.

This seems pretty wide-reaching, however. The Washington Post’s online division, washingtonpost.com, apparently caught so much ire from people unhappy with their ombudsman’s recent statements that they decided to turn off comments on the post.blog. While I’m sympathetic to having to deal with ugly comments - DC Metblogs gets the occasional crank and a fair amount of spam that has to be dealt with - it seems to me that you don’t respond to heated criticism by taking your ball and going home.

Particularly not when it’s over your ombudsman declaring she’s just not going to respond anymore. Maybe I’m not understanding m-w on this. “one that investigates reported complaints (as from students or consumers), reports findings, and helps to achieve equitable settlements”

Sure sounds like she should be responding…