Could it be the reason you feel this way is because you/we were without baseball for 33 years after the Senators were ripped away? If the Expos arrived here without the previous Senators' history, would you feel differently? Just curious because I've never "lost" my childhood team.
I feel the same way as Ray D. I followed the expansion Senators very closely as a young boy from 1965 to 1971. I'm sure at least a few seasons I listened to all 162 games on the radio. I remember coming across my 7th grade journal that included a summary of all the highlights of Nats' games during the season and my feelings about the results. I remember watching Frank Howard, Eddie Brinkman, Ken McMullen, Camilo Pascual, Joe Coleman, Pete Richert and Paul Casanova play many times, and later, Dick Bosman, Darrol Knowles, Mike Epstein, Tim Cullen, and Del Unser, with Ted Williams managing. I remember seeing Frank Howard hit some amazing 450 foot moonshots, but sometimes strike out with the bases loaded.
I remember watching Orioles like Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair, and Davey Johnson absolutely annihilate the Senators in doubleheaders on several occasions in DC/RFK Stadium.
So I was one of those who had baseball ripped away from me for 33 years. Imagine how desperate for Major League baseball ex-Senators fans like me had to be in order to drive over to Balmer and adopt the despised Orioles team as our own (more or less) about 10 years later.
One thing about many Washington baseball fans, especially those a bit older than me, such as Welch: They had their hometown team (one of 8 1901 AL charter franchises, 1901-1960) stolen from them not once, but twice, within 11 years! Name another MLB city in modern baseball history that went through that, and then had to be without a team for 33 years.
There's a very good reason the last game ever played by the Washington Senators in 1971 was before an angry and bitter crowd, and the game was forfeited. See Shirley Povich's excellent column here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/general/povich/launch/senators2.htm So in summary, like others, I'm not anti-Expos at all, however I have never completely forgiven MLB for denying us a team for 33 years (and I consider myself a rather forgiving sort, but some childhood wounds don't heal so well).
(On the other hand, the first moment I walked into RFK in 2005 to take my young daughter to a game and saw the baseball field with a Washington team, it was like all these great memories of going to games with my Dad came flooding back to me. That was maybe the best sports feeling/memory of my entire life).