Ask an Idiot Blogger

From Marc Fisher's WaPo blog post about the Nationals' abyssmal TV ratings, comes the following claim:

"[A]fter 33 years without baseball, the sport is a mystery or meaningless to a huge number of people in this region."

Seeing as how a huge number of people in this region are originally from other regions, including many from regions that have long and robust baseball traditions, I have a hard time believing that it was just the long absence of a major league team from DC that rendered the local populace so ill-informed. Nevertheless, NTP is willing to step up and fill your knowledge hole, with a new occasional feature we're calling "Ask an Idiot Blogger".

As our tagline declares, there are three of us, we're idiots, and we're prepared, when necessary, to share our opinions on baseball and life in Washington, DC. Whether it's basic baseball, like "Why can't that nice man take his stick with him when he runs around touching the white squares?" or something more Nats-centric, as in "Under what system for assessing intrinsic value is Paul LoDuca worth $5 bucks, let alone $5 million?" you ask, we'll answer.

But NTP has always prided itself on being more (or less) than just a baseball blog, so feel free to broaden your sphere of inquiry. Dave is a gadgeteer and business traveller extraordinaire, so he can field all your travel, leisure and technology questions. Watson is the resident media guru and gourmand, so he's got that covered. I'm more of a big picture guy, so if you've ever really wanted an honest answer to the eternal question "Why does God hate me?" hit me up.

Contact info is available under Nate's profile off to the right, and your question will be routed to the appropriate NTPer for research and a public response whenever we get around to it. At a bare minimum, we promise to be more informative than Bill Ladson's latest mailbag. To get the ball rolling:

Q: "Why can't that nice man take his stick with him when he runs around touching the white squares?"

A: "He has been informed by his PO that it would be considered a violation of the terms of his parole."

See how easy that is?