I suspect The Bird was freed . . .

Photo taken at 5:09 p.m. Thursday, one minute after protesters filed out.
According to sources, some people (not pictured) stayed. [Thanks, MLB.com]

This blog can be so provincial: Nats, Nats, Nats, NattyNatNats. The Nats stink, you know. There's not much else to say about that, and sometimes the less said, the better. So tonight, I'll say less---as in nothing---about the Nats.

This means it's time to solicit for ideas. Let's see, there's:

• Robert Jarvik
• Robert Jarvik's Lipitor commercial
• The Jarvik-7 artificial heart
• Robert Jarvik's MENSA-ish wife

In non-Jarvik-related news, some idiots held a stupid walk-out-protest rally at Camden Yards this afternoon. Now, when I call these idiots "idiots," I mean "idiot" in the nice sense. That is, their enthusiasm is compelling---wearing "FREE THE BIRDS" tee shirts and walking out at in clock-handed honor to Brooks and Cal and all---but it's also pretty useless. And that's why their protest was stupid: Peter Angelos owns the Orioles, not these idiots, and Angelos is worse than an idiot. He's a cretin, and not in the sense that his folks are from Crete:

First things first: "Nasty Nestor" is an unimportant person---perhaps even a very unimportant person. And he probably does entertain delusions of grandeur. He owns a sports talk station that runs a 0.6 in the ratings, and Angelos' team is carried on a blowtorch that runs nearly a seven. Granted, WNST is generally neck-and-neck with the other all-sports station in Baltimore---but hell, that's a tenth better than WTEM. In Baltimore. WTEM. Ponder that.

A few years back, this ham-and-egger wannabe-Limbaugh drive-time hot talker at WRVA, our Clear Channel blowtorch here in Richmond, essentially telephonically stalked a former city councilwoman. Now, this lady was two parts incompetent with a side of corrupt, so she was an easy mark. Thus, the talk show host's stunt had the air of the populist, but that was all sheen: it was instead the hallmark of the desperate. It was a pretty transparent grab at controversy, and controversy breeds ratings. I'd imagine this is really what Aparicio is after. Ratings. Or influence. Or whatever.

That aside, I wonder if Angelos really knows what's an "abuse" to his players. This would be, I'd imagine. Or this. But 1,000 fans out of an announced crowd of 17,000 walking out of a boring game no one cared about? Who cares?

I'd spend a moment or two on Angelos' intellectually insulting claim that money buys success, but really . . . who cares? Well, I used to. I probably still would.

But for Angelos himself, of course.