Whose City Is This Anyway?

Update (9/30/09): It has just been made known to this blogger that The Pour House does proclaim that they ARE, in fact, the OFFICIAL Steelers bar in Washington, D.C. Good for them.

The St. Louis Cardinals have clinched the N.L. Central 2009 title and the Cubs remain one game away from elimination in the Wild Card race. The back-to-back stint in the playoffs will be remembered for years to come as another sad attempt toward achieving baseball's ultimate goal.

'Til next year, I suppose.

On the other hand, football season is three weeks in and it appears as if this one-team kinda gal must shift her alliances to the next best thing -- the Chicago Bears.

In D.C., it's hard to root for any native teams teams whether you're a transplanted resident or a local. Hell, there haven't even been any championship teams that have D.C. as their mailing address. With that said, I find myself required to root for my Bears in an attempt to silence my friend's hoot n' hollering about their respective teams.

After an afternoon matinee of the new Tucker Max movie "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell", a college buddy of mine went down to the Pour House on Capitol Hill for an afternoon of cheap pitchers, Kolbasa, fries, Skee Ball, and Steelers football.

There I was, a Cubs fan turned 15-minute-Bears fan at a bar jam packed with Steelers fans in D.C., when I thought to myself -- whose city is this anyway?

This was truly another "Only in D.C..." moment for me. Only in D.C. would it be socially acceptable to head to the local watering hole with the sole purpose of rooting for your home team only to be surrounded by hundreds of others just like you.

On Sunday, I was surrounded by Black and Gold. I couldn't take one step without seeing a Terrible Towel hanging out of Joe Shmoe's back jean pocket.

I vaguely recall making friends with a Red Sox fan during half-time, but no amount of cheap beer could keep me from remembering the lesson of the evening: the Pour House is the un-official Steelers bar of D.C. (according to my hill staffer friend joining me on this Sunday night adventure).

That got me thinking: where are all the Redskins fans? Mourning a loss to the Lions? Oh yeah ... that's right.

To all those Skins fans out there, I think we're going to be great friends. Now that I've started watching football, I think you'll find that we have a lot in common. You may or may not have heard about my Cubs. They're not too good. And from the looks of the Lion's ending their losing streak, I'd say you'd agree with the fact that the Skins aren't the best team either. I say we share a pitcher stool side at a bar sometime. It'd be better than pretending to be a Steelers fan as to not attract attention to oneself.

I suggest Cubs and Redskins fans unite. Together we can insure that we're no longer outsiders while cheering for our football teams on Sunday.