The never ending dream.

Being a fan of both the Washington Redskins and the Washington Nationals, their respective offseasons bring with them both depression and hope. Both teams usually crank up the hype machine during the offseason and then both teams (especially the Redskins these days) tend to grossly under achieve. This, however, never really stops the true fan from falling for the hype.

Thomas Boswell's article about opening day of Nationals spring training in today's WaPo is the first shot fired in what is sure to get me cranked up about the coming baseball season. Why am I getting excited? Who knows? The Nationals roster was pretty much gutted last season to make way for new ownership that wants to build from the bottom up. Re-building: the word that strikes fear into even the most optimistic of sports fans.

The Nats have no pitching to speak of. Zero. Zip. None. Their one "ace" is John Patterson, who can't seem to stay healthy for more than two games in a row. The Nats are hoping to find a rotation from the group of 37 unknowns, has-beens, and minor-leaguers that will eventually be the core of the new team and maybe actually win a few games this season.

As Boswell and other WaPo sports writers have said before, The Nats did retain a small core of people to build around: young guys like Ryan Church and Ryan Zimmerman (who came VERY close to winning rookie of the year last season) and veterans like Brian Schneider and Nick Johnson (who is coming off a devastating leg injury and is not sure to start by opening day). Maybe the team will gel and have the kind of season that, even if they don't make the playoffs (or even get close), will portend of great things to come. It's possible although it's more of a pipe dream.

Then we have the Redskins: the greatest Superbowl team on Earth...in April. The hype machine hasn't started rolling for the Skins yet. After last season's unbelievable collapse, it's going to be hard to be anything but cautiously optimistic about their chances next season. However, as many of you know, once free agency and the draft comes around, I'll be probably spouting the party line and hoping for the best.

A bad case of sports psychosis is probably the only way I can explain my budding excitement for two teams that are more than likely going to cause me pain and heartache. All I know is that I'm going to order up the MLB's live season broadcast package and get up early to watch the Nats games, and I'm going to order up the NFL package next season and get up ridiculously early to watch the Skins play.

WOOO HOOOO!