Nationals invade Baltimore
May 17, 2008
One of the great things about interleague play are the geographical rivalries that you otherwise normally wouldn’t get to see. We get to see Angels-Dodgers, A’s-Giants, White Sox-Cubs, Rangers-Astros, Yankees-Mets, Devil Rays-Marlins, Royals-Cardinals and with the Expos moving to Washington, Orioles-Nationals.
While I don’t believe the players on the field treat the games as a rivalry, the fans certainly do. So it’s nice to see the organizations getting into the act.
The Nationals sent their mascots and other employees to Inner Harbor, a landmark/tourist area very close to Baltimore’s Camden Yards, to give away stuff and promote their team. Reportedly, Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos was fine with it, but you have to think that privately, he has to have been furious considering he was the biggest opponent to the Nationals moving to DC in the first place.
I’d like to see more of this — teams trying to get under each others’ skin and invade a local rival’s turf with giveaways, promotions and meet-and-greats with mascots and people from the organization
(I got the photos from the excellent Nationals blog Nats320. Check them out.)
Gilbert
Ben
May 17, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Is there any good way in which a lot of these rivals could invade? A lot of these teams are lacking mascots, who are the special forces of invading the opposing stadium for the purposes of fun and mischief. There’s a big difference between sending Billy the Marlin or Mr. Met somewhere than sending some stiff Yankees employee in a suit.
PS: Mr. Met has been known to occasionally invade Philly to do a few routines with the Phillie Phanatic, but I don’t think the Phillie Phanatic has ever gone up to Shea.