Off Wing Opinion
Off Wing Opinion


February 06, 2007

Visiting The "Natosphere"


In today's edition of The Washington Post, Nationals beat writer Barry Svrluga introduces Washington to the growing number of blogs that cover the Washington Nationals.

Front and center is an old friend, Chris Needham:

The e-mail popped in, and Chris Needham took a minute to digest it. The sender was easily identifiable: Stan Kasten is the president of the Washington Nationals, the baseball team about which Needham comments almost daily via his blog.

Needham had just published an entry titled "StanSpeak," in which he took the liberty of "translating" Kasten's words for the club's fan base, a smart-alecky but smart look at what the man who runs the club might really be thinking.

Needham opened the e-mail cautiously. He knows about this?

"I had suspicions that they read this stuff," Needham said. "But when a suspicion becomes a reality, it's surreal."

The surreal part might not be that team executives read and comment about sites such as Needham's "Capitol Punishment," but that nearly two dozen people -- some who grew up in the District, some who grew up in Omaha, some who are Web masters and some who are lawyers -- spend five or 10 or (gulp) 20 hours a week producing blogs devoted to the Nationals.

My coverage of the move of the Expos to D.C. was pretty intense for a while, but that seems so long ago now. In any case, I'm certainly of the opinion that Capitol Punishment is well worth your time. Congrats to Chris on the well-deserved attention.



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