I applaud you for writing about football, but don't entirely agree with your conclusions. 

First, we actually, officially, do live in the "Baltimore-Washington-DC, MD, VA, WV Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area" (Which includes the Baltimore, MD MSA, the Hagerstown, MD MSA, and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria DC-VA-WV MSA).  Not that this necessarily has any practical significance in terms of being two different cities, but might partially explain football's confusion on the issue.   

Moreover, the primary audience and customers for a city's sports teams isn't just the people who live in the city, but those who live in its suburbs.  And a good chunk of the people who live in DC's Maryland suburbs, making them potential Redskins fans, are also in close proximity to Baltimore, making them potential Ravens fans.  And, in terms of broadcast TV, they're also in our TV market.  To paraphrase your other blog last week "Marylanders are people, too"

Also, since you brought up baseball, I'll humbly submit that the long time when DC had no team and the Orioles were the team for DC people might have furthered the confusion about whether or not Baltimore and DC are separate cities, sports-wise. 

More seriously, it was a f@#(*&@ beautiful day outside yesterday, if you were unhappy with the football options on TV, you certainly had other excellent entertainment options (not to mention a decent number of bars where you could catch another game if you so chose).

if you want to obsess over a socialist spectacle like football, power to ya (i'm a gints fan myself, but not a football fan), but really: you need to learn something about baseball.

In three hours of a football game, you get 7 minutes of action: is that something to get excited over?

as i watch and listen to football junkies, i think about what soccer coach sven goran erickson said about soccer in italy: "in most countries, a football match lasts 90 minutes, but in italy, it lasts all week."

Just to note, Baltimore and Washington are no longer in a single consolidated metropolitan statistical area, for the simple reason that CMSAs no longer exist.  They are each in separate metropolitan statistical areas, although they are in the same combined statistical area, which is actually rather similar to the old consolidated metropolitan statistical areas.  So I suppose it's six of one, half a dozen of another.

Secondly, the idea that Marylanders are confused about which team to root for is ridiculous.  People from the DC suburbs (Montgomery and PG County) root for the Skins.  People from the Baltimore area (Baltimore, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel, probably Howard) root for the Ravens.  There may be some overlap, but it's not really all that difficult.  As a native Montgomery County-an, I can vouch for the fact that there are no Ravens fans there.

 Beyond this, there is a very simple issue - Baltimore and Washington each have a full range of local tv stations.  In a reasonable world, the Baltimore stations would broadcast the Baltimore games, and the Washington stations would broadcast the Washington games.

I grew up in Central New Jersey, about 50 miles from NYC and 60 miles from Philly, so we got to see the Jets, Giants and Eagles as our local teams.  Though most people in my area declared allegiance to the New York based teams (as more people moved to the 'burbs from NYC), there were a few insane people who lived and died by the Eagles, which led to contentious Monday mornings at school.  And this held true for all sports, so we had Phillies fans arguing with Mets fans and Knicks fans arguing with 'Sixers fans.  There were very few people who admitted to being Nets fans (myself excluded - I lived and died with my Jersey teams), due to their horrible record throughout my school-going years.  And, in regards to the Giants and Jets being from Jersey, I've been saying that for years.  The NFL really should give the state its due (as Springsteen eloquently pointed out on his '99 tour). 

Calling the "World Series" of Poker a "World Series" is actually pretty stupid. The World Series is a series of baseball games. What is the WSOP? A series of poker hands? The first year they called it the WSOP (1970), the winner was actually decided by popular vote!

Anyhow, if you can equate the drama of poker hands played months ago with the live, unfolding drama of the last two innings of that baseball game last night, you need to be sent to some sort of sports re-education camp. You can learn there that the NBA sucks too.

But as someone who grew up in the D.C. suburbs I too am frustrated by the D.C./Baltimore confusion. I have little connection to D.C. but absolutely NONE to Baltimore. I don't think I could even name one street there. 

This is one great thread.

500 years from now, an anthropologist seeking to figure out the shifts from geographical allegiance to culture-and-tribe-by-choice might use it as a sort of Rosetta Stone to decode some confusing things.

(I have no patience for doctoral students who complain that all the great thesis topics have been done already. I see good stuff all the time.)

:-)

Worry about the big things. For example, I haven't seen Richard Perle's name in the paper for months. Is he still alive?

I well remember living in Iowa and getting the Chiefs game every week.  Oh, how I hate the Chiefs.

But, since I moved to Norway I only get one game a week: the Monday night game.  And now I don't care who is playing, it's football.

While the Census Bureau -- or whomever decides such things for the Census Bureau -- considers Washington and Baltimore to be part of the same area, the Nielsen Company doesn't.  And generally they networks follow Nielsen's lead.  I don't know why the league feels it necessary to treat Washington and Baltimore this way.