I've been so wrong so many times on the D.C. Baseball issue I should just shut up on the issue altogether ...

... but you know me better than that. The recent vote by the D.C. Council puts the ball back in play. Asking Bud Selig to find private financing for a ballpark is like asking TFD to raise funds for John Ashcroft's Presidential campaign.

In a surreal moment at the Winter Meetings, Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, paraded through the lobby with two showgirls and an Elvis impersonator. It was the second best posse of the weekend (behind Nationals GM Jim Bowden) and kept Vegas in the minds of many people as a viable alternative for the Marlins, A's, and Twins if the public doesn't cough up funds for a ballpark. The Marlins and A's can make actual reasoned cases that they need new ballparks - not that I agree with public funding - and keeping teams in flux puts some pressure on towns.

Someone - I forget who - said this weekend that the Marlins have won two World Series rings while being a team more in search of a ballpark than an identity. Dead on. I'm starting to think that the Washington Nationals might be the Seattle Pilots all over again. Just remember that story brought us "Ball Four" and Bud Selig.