Happy Birthday Mary Shelley!

It's a very special day for Mary Shelley, born today in 1797. As you probably know, Shelley wrote the novel and song Frankenstein. I can't decide which I like more.

There's not been much out there the last couple of days. All the good stuff happened on Friday. I can't find it online, but I could have sworn I saw an article in the Saturday or Sunday Post about MLB trying to give the Zombie Loudoun Cabal one last chance to prove that their house is in order. We all know that zombies can't do much except express their desire to eat brains, so I'm sure it didn't go well.

Thom Loverro doesn't appreciate Jack Evans' moxie like I do. From yesterday's Times:

[Evans'] strong-arm act has turned off baseball officials in the past, and the threat of refusing to allow the use of RFK — however ludicrous it may be for the city to turn down revenue) — only will add to their opinion of Boss Jack.

Anybody know anything about this? Or is it just that Evans won't fork over the money until MLB forks over the team? I don't get how MLB could say no this guy - just look at him! Look at his sneer of cold command! Look on his works, Bill Collins, and despair!

The next bit is important, but long, so I'll summarize with the occasional block-quotation. The Loudoun bid, as we know, is in tatters. DC's financing plan requires District businesses to kick in $18-20 million a year, and they're not going to be willing to do that unless the stadium is right downtown; RFK is out.

. . . according to Mark Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission, [the RFK site] is not under consideration. "We're not going to build a stadium at RFK," he said. "It will be a downtown site."

But if this is true, DC is in just as much disarray as NoVa, since:

. . . that site — whether it is New York Avenue in Northeast or the Benjamin Banneker site in Southwest — has not yet been decided upon or perhaps even secured, and so neither has the far more expensive costs for any of those sites been presented by city officials.

Loverro acknowledges that these problem will work themselves out if DC is awarded the Expos, but claims the same is true with Loudoun. I don't know about that; the speaker of the VA house was pretty definitive in his rejection of moral obligation bonds.

Loverro's article is a splash of cold water, but I'm still confident. Whatever happens, I hope it happens soon. I started this blog in June only because I thought it was only a matter of team before the Expos were awarded to the capital. The intervening months have been rough on me. Here's a picture of me in June, and here I am now. I want my youth back, Selig.

Author Bijan Bayne has a website/blog at www.bbayne.com, and included is a really good article on why baseball ought to return to DC. Pretty much any argument against DC baseball in general is refuted here, and Bayne has an impressive grasp of the history of the issue. Check out the article and the blog, which is wide-ranging and very interesting.