FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 5 -- Frank Robinson shrugged it off, waved his hand. "A rivalry?" he said. "Come on."
He once wore orange and black, and was proud to do so. He now wears red, white and blue, and he says it feels just fine. But the fact that all those colors swirled together Saturday afternoon under the glorious south Florida sun -- when the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles played for the first time -- added an edge to an otherwise meaningless exhibition game, whether Robinson acknowledged it or not.
Terrmel Sledge, left, is greeted after his 2-run homer in 6th. Brad Wilkerson followed with another homer.
(Jonathan Newton -- The Washington Post)
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"Do I understand why this is potentially special?" Nationals General Manger Jim Bowden said. "Yes, I do. Local rivalries are important. Do I think Washington-Baltimore is going to be a great rivalry in the future? Yes, I do. In interleague play, do I think we should play them eight times a year? Yeah, I probably do."
No, the Nationals weren't celebrating some sort of Baltimore-Washington Parkway championship after their 9-6 victory over the Orioles at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. No, 19-year-old shortstop Ian Desmond -- who ripped a two-out, three-run triple to break a 5-5 tie in the ninth inning -- won't become the poster boy for the Nationals' side in some bitter turf war. And certainly, Orioles outfielder Sammy Sosa wasn't blaming District Mayor Anthony Williams, sitting in the stands along the first base line, for Sosa's early ejection.
So maybe what surfaced Saturday was merely the potential for the kind of taunting and finger-pointing that comes when two teams in close proximity face each other on a regular basis. The Orioles and Nationals don't play in the regular season this year, and only play three times during spring training. But those familiar with baseball's existing rivalries can see how it could happen in the mid-Atlantic.
"This could be a rivalry in an instant," said Baltimore Manager Lee Mazzilli, who played for both the New York Mets and Yankees. "Somebody gets hit. There's a hard slide. Somebody says something somebody doesn't like. You never know when a real rivalry will be born."
Though the crowd of 5,662 included not only the mayor but more than a few fans wearing Nationals hats, the teams treated it like any other spring training game.
Washington's Terrmel Sledge and Brad Wilkerson erased a 2-0 deficit in the sixth by hitting back-to-back homers -- Sledge's a two-run shot to center, Wilkerson's a bomb over the right-field bleachers. But the Orioles responded by scoring three in the bottom of the eighth -- the key hit a chopper by immense first baseman Walter Young that second baseman Rick Short, a former Oriole, lost in the low sun.
Thus, the Nationals came to bat in the top of the ninth trailing 5-4 and facing Orioles closer B.J. Ryan. But Ryan issued a walk, and after he struck out Jeffrey Hammonds, he allowed a single to George Arias, and then a game-tying single to catcher Gary Bennett.
Ryan then walked outfielder Alex Escobar to load the bases, bringing up Desmond. A year ago, he was playing for Sarasota (Fla.) High. Now, after being selected in the third round last June, he was invited to major league camp largely because Washington's farm system is devoid of shortstops. He is not a candidate to make the major league roster, and he understands it.
But he impressed in the fifth, when he cut down Baltimore's Brian Roberts at the plate on a high chopper. "Just instinct," he said. And with two outs in a tie game -- meaningless or not -- he smashed a pitch from Ryan just inside the third-base bag, clearing the bases.
"It's hard not to feel comfortable when you got great guys around you like this," Desmond said. "Every time I do something, everybody's always giving me handshakes, saying, 'Good job.' There's no way you could be uncomfortable in this situation."
Though the crowd clearly favored the Orioles, there was some celebration after Desmond's hit, including by Williams. His counterpart, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, wasn't present, and the pair didn't have the kind of friendly wager -- perhaps half-smokes for crab cakes -- politicos sometimes stage at athletic events of significance. It is, as Robinson reminded again and again, just spring training.
"I've talked about what it takes for it to be a rivalry," Robinson said. "This isn't even close to that."
So when the Nationals boarded their bus for the two-and-a-half hour ride up Interstate 95 to their spring home of Viera, they didn't do so with the kind of bragging rights that would come after a meaningful win. Rather, their priorities included getting some food, getting to bed and returning to the park Sunday morning.
What happened here, where a rivalry may or may not have been born, didn't matter.
"Down the road, maybe so," Robinson said. "Not today."
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