Marc,

I think what we've seen since opening day last year, is that yes this is a baseball town, but it is not yet a decidedly Nats baseball town. Most people who live here have the team they grew up with as their primarily favorite team, and that was not a DC based club.

In a generation or two, the fan base here will be a primarily Nats fan base especially if they contend and win over the next generation. All will be well in Natsville.

Washington's #7 for searching on "philosophy". Why is Makati in the Philippines #1?

Washington's #2 for searching on "corruption". Guess who #1 is.

Of course DC is a Baseball town. All you have to do is look at all of the folks running around the area with (curly) W or DC hats.

Baseball will need to make some major adjustments in their marketing strategy, though. Look around at RFK. Compare the number of Black and Brown faces in the stands to the number at OPCY, or virtually any other ballpark (including those in L.A. and San Diego). I strongly suspect that it will take Kasten / Lerner about 15 seconds to see where the fannies in the stands are coming from.

On another note, this whole Google Trends thing is more than a little frightening.

Major League Baseball still owns the Nationals and as we've seen over the last 18 months MLB has no desire to support (ie market and sell) baseball to the citizenry of the Nation's Capital. MLB screwed the Nats on the television deal with MASN and Angelos where the majority of the citizenry cannot see their own baseball team play games. MLB raised ticket prices from year 1 to year 2 for no other reason than to haul off every last buck it could before selling the team to the Lerners. MLB had Nationals season ticket holders pay deposits the week before Christmas (earliest among all MLB franchises). MLB hasn't marketed the Nats in the area. The O's still have a team store in DC and the Nats have no such thing anywhere in town outside the ticket box at RFK.

Everything MLB has done, short of sending the Expos south to DC, has not been fan friendly. And if you believe Stan Kasten, and I do, in order for the Nats to be truly successful they need to get the casual fan and non-fan to come to RFK. MLB has not done anything to attract the casual fan let alone the non-fan.

I truly believe once the Lerners and Stan Kasten have full control of the Nats we'll see a better turn out at the ballpark.

There are no baseball fans in Washington D.C. that's a fiction.

Wouldn't googling for baseball be a sign of NOT being a major fan base? I mean after all, I know all the sites to get all the information I need on starting pitchers, stats, news, etc. Why would I ever need to google it?

Mitch -

I was thinking the same thing. I'm a Redskins fan. If I wanted info, I'd never go through Google - I'd go straight to the team website. Also, even IF I needed to Google a team once, I'd put a bookmark up so I wouldn't need to search for it again.

Seems like Google Trend's methodology is a bit flawed.

"Turns out Washington is the #6 city in the world when searching for baseball, with St. Louis, Chicago, Houston and Dallas on top."

Dallas ahead of either New York or Boston (if Washington is #6, obviously both can't be #5)? That's bizarre, considering the Rangers have won exactly one postseason game in their history. On the other hand, Dallas is no longer the one-dimensional football town outsiders still perceive it as, not after the Stars won a Stanley Cup and the Mavericks reached the NBA finals. Perhaps Washington is also becoming multi-dimensional as a sports town, much to the chagrin of the all-Redskins all-the-time crowd.

" there's plenty of grumbling in the air about whether Washington really is a baseball town"

Oh. So NOW you get it. It was just so obvious from the get-go that the baseball team was rammed down every single resident's throats. To have such a huge undertaking like a baseball team be a success, it must grow naturally out of a more organic process, from the bottom up. This deal was just too top heavy, too many residents were either outright opposed to it or confused about it (me). It was doomed from the beginning. New franchises in big league sports are nothing to take lightly in terms of getting one up and started. First of all, they ought to really really hesitate before adding more teams. There should be a lot of time between the last time a new team was added. Adding new teams waters down interest overall (all the new MLB teams). Plus of course, RFK is the absolute pits of the earth to watch a baseball game. They ought to have situated the new stadium where the old convention center was. Instant hit - games always or nearly always sold out.

Is DC genuinely a baseball town? Surely, there is truth to the maxim that repeating the same actions and expecting a different result is the surest sign of insanity -- in this case, long term fiscal insanity. Nevertheless, there is a rush to lay a large load of concrete and steel before Election Day this November -- despite the lack of a truly thorough and public environmental impact study and soil analysis. Has anyone seen a published report or news story regarding any certified study or analysis? How much money will it cost later when future headlines read: "New Environmental Hazards Discovered At Nats Stadium" or "Stadium HAZMAT Removal Costs Rising"

But, for now, more of our money will be used for a baseball agency, and to cover the coming Major League Baseball's legal challenges over DC government's recent alleged default on lease agreements related to construction. The deal, a bad deal to begin with, continues to deteriorate. I have great concerns, about this new chapter in the taxpayer funded nickel-and-dime deal -- disguised as a revenue generating DC baseball stadium deal. Is this yet another example of our public officials spending the rent money to buy more lottery tickets?

Beyond the hype, happy-talk, and flood of Washington Nationals baseball caps, what happened to that "spending cap?" -- and what's behind the doors of those back door deals inside and outside the DC Council?

Even the logic of creating the "Office of Baseball" or de facto DC Baseball Commission is pretentious and costly, even at $750,000. How much funding to prevent rising and random violent crime will diluted? How many new textbooks or classroom computers will that buy for DC students? How many homeless families can receive permanent housing, rather than warehousing? Under which shell in the unaccountable District budget shell game did this "magic money" come from? Can you spell f-e-d-e-r-a-l i-n-d-i-c-t-m-e-n-t-s ?

Thinking that another level of bureaucracy, and bate-and-switch economics, will stabilize and validate a bad deal is like putting a crown and gown on a gorilla, then calling it a beauty queen. Was this deal so shaky that only high risk takers would bite? Again, what happened to that "spending cap?"

No doubt, I like baseball -- though less so compared to DC basketball, soccer, hockey and live entertainment. But, the deeper truth behind the Washington Nationals baseball stadium project is that it's a nickel-and-dime deal hyped as multimillion-dollar baby -- a baby we can't afford to have or feed.

Having questioned some of the principals at the rarely held public meetings, I am thoroughly convinced that their best financial projections will reap only minimal and SEASONAL revenue for the District of Columbia. Filtering through the zigzag answers to my direct questions about the stadium's immediate and long-term financial benefit, versus the actual cost to DC taxpayers, they admitted their projected benefits are at best "a gamble." Even most risk-taking Wall Street bankers have long ago run away from this type of shaky cost/benefit formula being hyped in this DC stadium deal. Do local public officials think that DC is an abbreviation for Dumb Citizens?

Gambling with other people's money -- DC's hard-earned taxpayer revenue -- is not my idea of genuine fiscal responsibility and true accountability for public priorities. This is especially important as we continue to lose our permanent long-term tax base through resident relocation to more affordable, functional, and family-friendly areas outside the District. Why can't our allegedly capable and experienced elected official conceive more fiscally responsible innovative projects that genuinely benefit the District? Finally, as affirmed in the Friday, July 21st, Washington Post: "The District has authorized $611 million in public money to build the stadium near South Capitol Street..." No doubt, Linda Cropp and other mayoral candidates are no longer claiming that "No public money will be used" in the baseball deal.

My idea of building an Ellington Center on the same 20-acre footprint of the stadium is designed to produce exponential economic and social benefits. Ellington Center will be a dynamic YEAR-ROUND entertainment, arts, technology and retail shopping megaplex containing an indoor multi-use sports arena, multimedia family amusement park, 2 live performance auditoriums, the Capital Life & History Museum, 21st century public library, a hotel, 20 video and film theaters, 3 floors of stores, office space, an onsite medical facility, childcare services, DC police security center, customer service training school, easy Metro bus and train access, as well as multilevel underground parking.

My best financially conservative economic projection reveals that Ellington Center will generate at least 2,000 full time sales, administrative, service, technical and professional support jobs for District residents, and a minimum of $250 million dollars in annual revenue -- all in the same stadium construction space. Yet, it can be built for less than $350 million of the nearly $700 million dollars (and rising) that taxpayers will be billed for the Washington Nationals stadium. Much of that $350 million for construction will be funded by the major entertainment, amusement and retail companies that will jump at the opportunity to have a high profile presence in "The Nation's Capital" -- our brand. The multiple sources of real revenue generated out of sales, property, business and employment taxes from Ellington Center will have an immediate and long-term economic impact on greater funding for genuine public priorities -- priorities like first class schools, truly affordable housing, effective healthcare services, public safety, including a major reduction in resident and business taxation pressures.

This exponential economic benefit is increased when you include the millions more in tourist dollars, as Ellington Center becomes a priority attraction for millions of year-round visitors to the District. Again, I'm talking about YEAR-ROUND LONG-TERM socioeconomic benefit, not the seasonal speculative gamble that the stadium deal will gain for Major League Baseball owners -- and the future fortunes of the public officials who backed their deal.

Ellington Center, named in honor of DC's favorite son and America's national treasure Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington, will have the desired economic benefit that diverse District of Columbia residents know is needed for our many people-oriented priorities. Innovative, fiscally responsible projects create more District jobs and multiple sources of real revenue. Long-term year-round revenue generating projects reduce the growing tax burden on residents and businesses. Moreover, it sustains reliable and effective funding for real public priorities. It also maintains a high bond rating and value for DC, and strengthens our financial integrity -- proving we CAN develop and do a fiscally responsible profitable deal. Only new, clear-thinking, leadership can see the big picture benefits and long term advantages.

DC's relationship and history with baseball ventures is not a pretty one. The losing legacy that this team had before and since coming to the District is an economic omen that will generate financial nightmares for years to come. Despite the legendary and able skills of 'Nats' manager Frank Robinson, these nightmares won't be soothed by linking the cost of this genuinely bad deal with the trickle-down revenue expected from the vocal minority of DC and non-District suburban baseball boosters. When the reality check of year 2008 and long-term bills for this fiasco come due, I wonder how many fans will be fanatical about their decision.

The news photos of near-empty RFK stadium seats don't lie -- unlike the public officials who approved this over-hyped high profile boondoggle. Even low-panning TV cameras can't hide what the baseball bean counters already know. As my Dad, an avid baseball fan, used to say about used car dealers who want your money: "The louder and faster they talk, the more they lie."

The deep discontent about how paid and elected DC officials have become drunk over spending our hard earned taxpayer money will awaken an angry sleeping giant that will vote in this election year and beyond. Their administrative arrogance, ongoing fiscal irresponsibility, socioeconomic insensitivity, and overall operational unaccountability will fuel the blow-back they didn't predict. No wonder there is a rush to lay a large load of concrete and steel before Election Day this November -- and definitely before a new, clear thinking, fiscally responsible, and genuinely accountable mayor takes office on Inauguration Day this January. Again, DC does not mean Dumb Citizens!

All the reasons, among many more critical socioeconomic ones, why I am a candidate for District of Columbia mayor.

Dennis Moore -- www.MooreForPeople.com -- mooreforpeople@gmail.com