Dan Snyder & Peter Angelos: Both Washington and Baltimore Right Now Live in Sports Misery...

I don't why I didn't think of posting this until now, but the Washington Post's Thom Loverro, who has written some negative things about the Orioles (and lot of people would agree with him) pretty much has surmises both regions are sports purgatory thanks to their owners.

The two teams he's taking shots at are the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Orioles.

Respectively, they are owned by Daniel Synder and Peter Angelos. I'm sure both men have meant well for their teams, but their actions over the years have not done wonders for their reputations as owners and in turn, their teams have suffered.

Loverro write this peace at the time Art Monk and Darrell Green were inducted into the National Football Hall of Fame and the Baltimore Orioles celebrated their 25th anniversary of their last World Series about two weeks ago.

From the Washington Times:

When the Colts left Baltimore in 1984, a marketing effort attempted to get the Baltimore area to warm up to the Washington Redskins. It failed.

When the Senators left Washington after the 1971 season, a campaign attempted to get Washington to embrace the Baltimore Orioles. It succeeded only to a degree — witness the 34 years fans in the District spent fighting for a team of their own.

But there finally may be something to connect Washington and Baltimore sports fans: pain.

That is so for Redskins and Orioles fans, who share the pain of owners who operate on personal whim rather than in the best interests of their franchises, owners deaf to the pleas of fans and unsympathetic to their pain.

These are fans who have seen the best of times — and not that long ago either. The Redskins made four Super Bowl appearances from 1982 to 1991. A generation of Orioles fans grew up when the franchise was the best in baseball, winning six American League pennants and three World Series titles from 1966 to 1983.

Now the owners fiddle, the teams burn and the fans can only watch.

The Orioles tore down their team again to start over — and attempted to trade a Cy Young candidate to do so. The Redskins failed to capitalize on any momentum from the second Joe Gibbs tenure and a playoff appearance. They instead embarked on a coaching search that made the franchise a source of national ridicule.

And the passage which I think sums things up...

Both teams likely will call on that history this year to ease some of the pain. The Orioles are planning a number of events honoring the 1983 team, and the Redskins likely will honor Monk and Green at FedEx Field next season (traditionally, the Hall of Fame rings are presented during the season at the home stadiums of the inductees).

But as much pleasure as those good memories bring, they also remind everyone how bad the bad times are.

That, at least, is a place Washington football and Baltimore baseball fans can find common ground: good memories and bad times.

For me, sports is an escape and something to relax my psyche; not so much as something to belong to or something that parallels life. To me, games are just games; however, to many others it fulfills a vacuum and sense of entitlement for a region.

I know as much as anyone the importance of the Redskins and Orioles to their regions, and hopefully by some shred of hope, things will improve.

In the end, Loverro pretty much hit the nail on the head with his work...