Expos Imported

My fellow Washingtonians, our long regional nightmare is over. Three years of flip-flops have ended, and Major League Baseball will repatriate the Montreal Expos to Washington in 2005.

BallWonk knew the NAFTA free-trade agreement with Canada would pay off eventually.

The Expos transition team should arrive in Washington soon; time is short and the new administration needs to be able to hit the ground running when it takes office in February. There's a stadium deal to finalize, Darth Angelos to bribe, and Senate still has to ratify the annexation of Montreal. But the serious business of preparing for the Expos' inaugural game next April can wait a few days. For now, let's just savor the giddy joy of selection-day victory.

As Mayor Tony Williams said at the City Museum this afternoon, "The American game is rounding third and heading toward home right here in our nation's capital."