Beltway Series
The Beltway Series is the name of the interleague series played between the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles. The series name is taken from the two beltway highways, the Baltimore Beltway and the Capital Beltway, that service Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The Beltway Series is expected to become a regular rivalry series in Major League Baseball.
During spring training in 2006, the Nationals and Orioles played each other in Washington on March 31 and in Baltimore on April 1. During the 2006 regular season, the two teams split the series 3-3 with each time winning two games at home and one on the road. It also marked the first time in 35 years that the Orioles played a regular-season game in Washington, as they played the Washington Senators, another team in the American League annually from 1954 to 1960. The Orioles continued that rivalry with the new Washington Senators from 1961 to 1971.
Controversy fueling the rivalry
Although this rivalry is new, many Nationals fans already feel strongly about it. Peter Angelos, the owner of the Orioles, opposed the move of the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C. on the grounds that it would harm the Orioles financially, contending that the Orioles alone had a legal right to the Baltimore-Washington market. Interestingly, the original Washington Senators were well-established in the Baltimore/Washington market for over fifty years before the Saint Louis Browns moved to Baltimore to become the present-day Orioles.
The dispute was resolved when the Orioles were granted the right to broadcast Nationals games on their new television network, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. However, the deal was struck only days before the beginning of the 2005 season and many DC-area fans did not receive the new network for some time and were unable to watch most games. Furthermore, it has been reported that Angelos and the Orioles hold majority ownership in the network, which has led some Nationals fans to contend that the channel exhibits a bias in covering the Orioles compared to the Nationals.
Thus, many Nationals fans are inclined to dislike Angelos and the Orioles, lending fire to the rivalry from their perspective.
External links
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