How anyone can bother hating the Orioles when there are Phillies, Mets, and Barves to save one's venom for is pretty much beyond me. Angelos did this, Angelos did that...well, at least put the blame for DC not having a team for a generation where it really belongs (MLB). Not that I really care one way or the other these days, but the Orioles were the ONLY show in town back in the day (most of you can't possibly understand this, as you probably aren't from here). In the days of broadcast television, major league ball here consisted of a) World Series and league playoff series, and b) Orioles. That's it.
Few days late in my reply, but for serious?
How can anyone bother hating the Os?
The teams in our division are just that, teams in our division. You'll have to forgive me if I save my venom for a franchise that tried everything in their power to stop the Nats from existing, never mind depriving our city of a decade of seasons we should have had otherwise. Either the Rays or Marlins, one of those should have gone to DC if not for Angelos and the Os. So yeah, all the Mets, Braves and Phillies have ever done is play baseball against us and beat us a few times. The O's took away 1600+ games, screwed us with MASN...
You can't seriously expect me to believe that Phoenix, Denver and Tampa Bay made more sense for expansion in the 90s than DC. Angelos used his influence, depriving DC of baseball for another decade.
Putting the blame on MLB is delusional. I get that a lot of the folks who had grown up with and rooted for the Senators blamed MLB for us not having a team, since during the 70s and into the 80s Baltimore had little to do with the situation. I posted the story of my grandfather in our 'headed to the playoffs thread'. MLB abandoned his city, and so he gave up on MLB for over thirty years, enjoying only two Nats seasons before passing away.
Maybe the fact I grew up in the 90s makes me more prone to hate the Os and blame Angelos, but what MLB did was basically not doing anything - nothing to stop our owners screwing DC and costing us two franchises, then acquiescing to Angelos' insanity to prevent it from returning AND allowing him to screw us when it finally did. Crap, MLB is the only reason we have baseball back in DC considering *they* owned the Expos and moved them to DC. Nothing changes the fact that Angelos would destroy the Nats tomorrow if he had the power, which you cannot say about MLB or the Phillies/Mets/Braves.