And here are the starting lineups.
For Washington: Goose Goslin, Bucky Harris, Ryan Zimmerman, Josh Gibson, Frank Howard, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Vernon, Eddie Yost and Walter Johnson.
For Baltimore: Wee Willie Keeler, Cal Ripken Jr., Babe Ruth, Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson, Eddie Murray, Bobby Grich and Jim Palmer.
If all that seems a bit phantasmal, so did the idea of a World Series between Washington and Baltimore--at least until Tuesday night, when the Nationals and the Orioles both clinched their division championships to ensure themselves a place in the playoffs. The Series is still a long way off, but there's a possibility that the neighbor cities will meet there for the first time, and if they do, it will be a moment steeped in history. The names above give some idea of the two cities' baseball heritage, which extends into the 19th Century.
Yet between 1900, when professional baseball began taking shape as a game organized and played much the way we see it today, and 2005, Baltimore went 54 years without a major league team and Washington 33--nearly 90 years between them. Two owners departed Washington in a decade, taking their teams along.
Now, finally, we have a chance of the two cities meeting in the World Series. Should it happen, there will be some chatter about the contrast between gritty, working-class Baltimore fandom and the team of Washington's governing, lobbying and lawyering elites. Don't buy too much of it. If you stand out at the center-field gate of Nationals Park and observe the mass of humanity flowing around you in all its happy, often funky, sometimes oddly dressed glory, you will not be inclined to think you're among the elite. In fact, you will be surrounded by genuine, devoted fans, whose city hasn't won a World Series since 1924 and who now surely feel that, after 90 years, it's Washington's time. And with all due respect to the heirs of Wee Willie Keeler, we'd have to agree.
Editorial on 09/19/2014