Well the Nationals series opener with the Guardians was postponed this evening, but while I was awaiting that decision I used my time to gather a bunch of information on how a music teacher in Iowa became a Nationals fan. Yes, it had a lot to do with politics.

It’s hard to be a baseball fan when your political leanings are liberal left, and the ownership groups of the franchises tend to be wealthy millionaires or primarily billionaires. Then these ownership groups stack the deck on the communities that host their teams by getting tax breaks or refunds or TIF’s for new parking facilities, blah blah blah…. Well in 2015 after being a fan of the Chicago Cubs since my childhood that all changed. When Joe Ricketts the primary owner of the Cubs gave $5M to then Governor Scott Walker’s SuperPac during his presidential run, I disavowed the team, forever. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/07/30/ricketts-family-gives-more-than-5-million-to-walker-super-pac/

Why? Governor Walker crippled education in Wisconsin. He set the state back years with his backwards neoliberal capitalism beliefs. The arts were setback as well. Illinois was also struggling in education, but from the neoliberal capitalist beliefs of a Governor Blagojevich and Quinn. (Same coin, different parties, but same neoliberal capitalist beliefs) As a 20 year teacher in Illinois forced to work two part time college gigs for 3/5 of my original salary due to budget cuts from my last employer I was feeling particularly nasty about politicians that fleeced people all in the name of profit for themselves and their super donors. These instances helped shape my graduate school research paradigm. Who knew baseball, music education, and politics all had common political foes and forces.

Disavowing the Cubs wasn’t that hard to do. The great history of the Cubs happened prior to Ricketts buying the team. Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Sammy Sosa, Rick Sutcliffe, the debacles that kept the franchise out of the World Series. The great Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray at the microphone. Hey, Hey, Holy Cow… and all that business. I still enjoy that history, even though it isn’t my team. It didn’t even bother me when the Cubs won the 2016 WS. The hard part was finding a new team.

I adopted the Nationals and their Expos history as my team about a year or two after disavowing the Cubs. I watched a little ball here and there, but primarily my interest in MLB was through my fantasy teams that I enjoyed due to my busy performance schedule. I finally settled on a short list of five franchises. They were the Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals, and the fifth escapes me. I think it was the Pirates, but I’m at a loss. These five franchises had the cleaner surface reputations from their ownership groups at the time.

I dug into these ownerships groups pretty deep. The Cardinals CEO lived in Cincinnati at the time. They were also my brother’s favorite team. They have great history and a lovely connection to their city. St. Louis is a great town, but after disavowing the Cubs it would feel disgraceful to remain in the Central Division.

Detroit had a lot of good things going for it. The principal owner also owned the Red Wings Hockey team, the Little Caesar’s Pizza franchise and was active in renovating or redeveloping the city. They financed most of Comerica Park with grants and county bonds covering the rest, but again the Central division of the American League. I just couldn’t see myself being a fan of the American League.

Baltimore was a solid contender until I saw the litigation between them and the Nationals over television monies. I didn’t like the ownership group’s protesting of the Expos moving to D.C. There are plenty of people in the DMV area to support two franchises. It is a great rivalry, but no way could I support the Orioles despite their great history.

The Nationals ended up winning. Joe Lerner the patriarch of the Lerner family is a self made billionaire. https://www.forbes.com/profile/ted-lerner/ He borrowed $250 from his wife to start a real estate business in the DMV. Their wealth is primarily based on real estate holdings in DC and MD. The city owns the ball park. That was a stipulation for moving the franchise from Montreal to DC. The city passed municipal bonds to pay the $611M price tag. Stadium operations are paying that bill back, as are taxes on businesses. No general funds were used to pay for it. The Lerner family pays for upgrades in the park. According to the city the ball park has remained on budget despite unsettled eminent domain suits. I’m not an insider, so I do not know the whole scoop. https://www.jdland.com/dc/stadium.cfm

Politically the Lerners are not very active. They do not buy favors through superPACS. They have given to both democrat and republican candidates in the DMV area where their real estate holdings exist. Their political giving is minimal compared to the Ricketts family. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/theodore-lerner.asp?cycle=04

The one area where the Lerner family appears to be weak in is philanthropy. They have donated large sums to George Washington University, the United States Holocaust Museum, and various hospital charities through their foundation. That giving is primarily local, like their political donations. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/the-annette-m-lerner-and-theodore-n-lerner-family,521528436/

No one is perfect, but through a little digging I settled on the Lerners and the Nationals. They had my favorite pitcher at the time, Max Scherzer. They had a good corps of ball players and were very active in the playoffs, including winning the 2019 World Series. A great surprise and a joyful experience for me. The tear down was heartbreaking to see some fan favorites shipped off to the Dodgers, Padres, Red Sox, etc… The rebuild has been fun to watch develop. The kids we have show a lot of promise. The Lerner’s have taken the old Expos franchise and made it a $2B dollar ball team. I’m glad they’re hanging on to the team and I’m glad it is a small market team competing with some big guns like Philadelphia, NY Mets, and Atlanta.

The NL East used to be the home of the Cubs, way back when. I always enjoyed the rivalries in the NL East as a kid. The geography just made sense to me. If Montreal were to get a new franchise named the Expos, I would rejoice. I really feel bad for that city. They had a team in 1994 that could have won the World Series, but the owner’s lock out killed a dream. I don’t think Montreal will get an expansion franchise. I see Nashville or Western city like Salt Lake or Portland getting an expansion franchise, but what do I know. I’m just a baseball fan.

Rain delays and Monday rain outs really get me down, but I don’t regret my decision in adopting the Nationals as my team. Sorry Cubbie fans, but your ownership group are in the business of electing neoliberal fascists. I just can’t support that kind of king making. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qIRYFYfzWz6-sJArp1pRpbMz8Lr4GLr0gp7XwjQJIXA/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Enjoy your evening, thanks for reading… Let’s play two tomorrow in the nation’s capital!!! So it goes…