Caravans intersect in District

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Winter finally has arrived, and so has caravan season.

The Washington Nationals caravan arrives Monday to kick off an eight-day tour, starting in the District, with stops in Bowie, Bethesda, Hagerstown, Manassas, Richmond and Virginia Beach before finishing in the District on Jan. 29.

It's not exactly the Beatles. Heck, it's not even be the Bay City Rollers.

The tour features new Nationals manager Manny Acta and three players -- Ryan Zimmerman, Nook Logan and pitcher Mike O'Connor. Three players with five total years of major league experience.

But, as Marty Schottenheimer would say, "It is what it is."

These are your Washington Nationals, circa 2007.

Zimmerman is the face of the team now, and heck, he lives just a few hours away. I'm not sure how they convinced Logan. And poor O'Connor, this is what he gets for being from Ellicott City, Md. He was also the featured act at the Class A Potomac Nationals Fanfest in December. When there was no word coming from the Nationals about the details of the caravan, I jokingly asked someone in the organization if they were waiting for O'Connor to have a free week. Guess he finally cleared his calendar.

But that's not all. Screech the mascot will make the trip, as will radio announcers Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler, as well as a Hall of Famer -- the newest television addition, Don Sutton.

The stars, though, will be the racing president mascots, who became a hit last year. They might want to add racing vice presidents, secretaries of state and a few other cabinet members as well this year, anything to divert attention from the field.

This will be fun for local baseball fans, who last winter spent their time on the D.C. Council caravan, which was misery on parade. And before that, their winters were spent being used and abused by Major League Baseball in a quest to try to bring a team back to the District. So a couple of RFK groundskeepers and John Wetteland setting off firecrackers would be a welcome baseball caravan in Washington.