Major League Baseball returned to Washington, D.C. for the first time in 34 years on Thursday evening as the Washington Nationals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3.  President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch, the first pitch thrown at RFK Stadium since the Senators left for Texas in 1971.  After a 34-year hiatus, the nation’s pastime has been reincarnated in the nation’s capital in the form of the Washington Nationals, or Nats.  The Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos, received a warm welcome from newly minted Washington fans.  I can’t go to a game yet because I’m in Seoul, but I would love to once I return to the D.C. area.  The last time I wrote about the Nats, D.C. Councilwoman Linda Cropp was holding up a stadium deal.  I’m glad she brokered a deal that brought the Nationals to D.C. and a new stadium.  I don’t generally support public funding for sports stadiums.  However, striking a stadium deal was preferable to reneging on a previous agreement.  (If you recall, Mayor Anthony Williams struck a deal with MLB last year to move the Expos to D.C.  Cropp nearly derailed it by trying to rewrite the deal to remove some key public funding.)  I plan to watch a Korean Baseball Organization game or two here in Seoul.  Still, I’m really looking forward to rooting for my newly adopted National League team.  I’m a big Seattle Mariners fan, but I won’t be able to see an M’s game in Seattle anytime soon.  The Nationals give me a team to root for while I live in the D.C. area.  I’m not really fond of D.C.’s other professional franchises, except perhaps D.C. United, the 2004 Major League Soccer champions.

I turned on the TV tonight and had to endure what seems like the umpteenth night in a row of Yankees-Red Sox baseball.  Enough already!  There are 28 other teams in the majors; it would be nice to see some other teams play for a change.  Now that the Sox are the champions and the Yankees have loaded up for yet another championship run, my heart just isn’t into baseball’s “hottest” rivalry.  I suspect I am not alone.  Both teams are 4-5 and currently cellar dwelling in the AL East.  I wouldn’t even mind watching a Pittsburgh-Milwaukee matchup over watching Yankee Gary Sheffield bum rush a Sox fan.  It seems as if every time a Yankee faces a Red Sox pitcher or hitter, their combined salaries exceed the entire payroll of the Kansas City Royals or Florida Marlins.  We all know they’re the best teams money can buy.  It was fun to root for the Sox when they were lovable losers; now they’ve joined the ranks of teams that try to buy championships. 

Speaking of competitions—tonight our team won second place in a trivia contest organized by our Association.  Another team previously won the competition three times in a row, and we were determined to defeat them.  Although we didn’t win this time, we put up a valiant fight.  The questions were very tricky, and some of them were quite obscure.  Hopefully next time we can bring home the “Golden Plate.”

The NCAA Tournament, better known as "March Madness," began play last night.  The games were on tape delay here in Korea.  Still, I enjoyed watching a bit of the Gonzaga-Winthrop game on television.  The Gonzaga Bulldogs, a team from Spokane, Washington, won 74-64.  My Washington Huskies beat Montana, 88-77.  The Huskies are the top seed in Albuquerque Bracket, so they needed to perform better than they did against bottom seed Montana if they have a chance to win it all.  I do have to confess that although I am rooting for the Huskies to win March Madness, I’m not optimistic of their chance of success in the tournament.  After all, it is a ritual for Seattle sports fans to be pessimistic about their teams’ ability to win championships.  I did not choose the Huskies to win it all in my tournament predictions.  Although the Huskies are my sentimental favorite, something tells me that they won’t make it past the "Sweet 16."  When filling out tournament "brackets," or predictions, it is necessary to be objective.  I also like Gonzaga, another Washington State favorite.  (It’s difficult for anyone from Washington State to dislike the "’Zags."  The Washington Huskies-Washington State Cougars rivalry is another story.)  I did not pick the ‘Zags to go far either.  The ‘Zags are too often on the wrong side of upsets.

If you’re not into college basketball, but you enjoy investing, give Fool.com’s "Stock Madness 2005" challenge a try.  It’s a fun way to see how 64 top-performing investments perform against each other.  With the markets doing so poorly lately, one needs something to make investing more fun.  Of the stocks listed, I am personally bullish on Apple (AAPL), Yahoo (YHOO), Blue Nile (NILE), and Overstock.com (OSTK).  Fool.com’s tourney seems to be heavily leaning towards technology stocks.  I am surprised they did not include eBay or Google, two technology titans with heavy stock price swings over the past few months.

For those who are exercise nuts or generally stick to a strict diet, beware!  What follows may be discomforting to read.  For the rest of us, read on.  Our family had a junk food craving tonight and went out to each at a local restaurant.  We’ve been eating dinner at home pretty much since we arrived in Seoul and decided we needed to get out and feed our pent-up American junk food craving.  We loaded up on pizza, Philly steak n’ cheese sandwiches, cheddar and bacon fries, and Buffalo wings.  Completely artery-clogging junk food!  It was delicious.  If it’s any consolation, we walked to the restaurant because we don’t yet have our car here in Seoul.  We don’t do it very often, but we’re not alone.  It was Friday night, and around 7 p.m. the restaurant filled with customers seeking the same artery-clogging food.  I guess we’re not the only junk-food junkies.

From the "Things that Make You Go Hmm…" Department:  During our trip to Korea, we departed from Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.  One of President Reagan’s first bold moves was to fire the nation’s air traffic controllers when they illegally went on strike.  Now the commercial airport closest to the nation’s capital is named after this president.  Perhaps Congress was being a bit cheeky when they voted to rename one of the nation’s most famous airports after President Reagan.