Can there really be a team in Washington without the Senators?

Major League Baseball, in all of its glory and warts, has never been known as a pragmatic organization.

Hey, do you remember 1994? Yeah, no World Series and a team in Montreal led the majors in wins and were destined to be the National League representative in that series, if it was played, if they finished the season.

But they didn't. The players called a strike, MLB told them to take a hike and the fans had no interest in who was right. They just wanted baseball and they couldn't have it.

Now, 10 years later, MLB is, in a way, paying another toll on that strike of 1994. The Expos, now the property of MLB, are now moving to Washington, D.C. to begin play at RFK Stadium in 2005. A new stadium will be built in the D.C. and the last remaining link to that awful strike will be wiped away.

Thirty years ago, the second reincarnation of the Senators were "first in war, first in peace and last in the American League." Now, this new team will be there, with a new name and new threads to try on.

But there shouldn't be a new name, should there? No. Now languishing within the legal papers down in Texas, the Texas Rangers (the former second Washington Senators) own the rights to the name "Washington Senators." The first Senators moved to Minnesota to become the Twins and the second team was an expansion team to replace the first one.

If there is going to be a new Washington, D.C. team, shouldn't it be the "Senators?"

History will suggest that that won't happen. When the Dodgers and the Giants left New York, the city was given a new team for the National League — the Metropolitans, or, the Mets. Plenty of teams have moved and kept their old names, like the Utah Jazz (New Orleans), the Oakland A's (Philadelphia and Kansas City) and the Los Angeles Lakers (Minneapolis), but none of a team taking a nickname of a former team that left long ago.

But a case should be made in this one with the now-former Montreal Expos and the name "Senators." Historically, it would fit, linking the team to baseball's past and possibly give it a new shine and luster that the others couldn't do. It would be a nod to the past heritage of baseball in D.C. and a fresh look at an old team.

Eh... This is Major League Baseball, though. I guess that's too much to ask, given that it still can't get its All-Star Game right and that only a handful of teams can compete in its modern marketplace. But that's another story for another day...

© Rob B.