Fastball Fans

I don’t live too far away from Washington, and sometimes cover them for another site I work for; however, I find the article below disheartening and fairly sick. As you know, the Washington Nationals are building a new park that should be ready for play by the end of March, but sadly the specter of bitter feelings and racism have seeped into a project that should only leave smiles on the faces of fans in the DC area…

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Workers at the District of Columbia’s baseball stadium have reported finding a noose on the site, potentially worsening already tense racial relations on the project.

The noose was discovered Tuesday afternoon, said Courtland Cox, an official with the D.C. sports commission, the semi-public group that is monitoring construction of the $670 million stadium. The noose was put together by a white electrician from Maryland who was fired Thursday, Cox said.

Commissioners met Thursday with officials from Truland Electric, the company that had hired the electrician, and the conglomerate that won the stadium contract, to discuss the incident, Cox told The Examiner.

Cox declined to elaborate, but this is not the first time workers from Truland have been accused of racism. Late last year, a group of African-American laborers told their union that they had been called “monkeys” by a Truland supervisor.

A Truland official hung up the phone when asked for comment.

Critics of the stadium project seized on the incident as proof of the bad faith involved in the stadium construction project.

“It’s absolutely stunning,” said Ted Trabue, executive director of the District Economic Empowerment Coalition. “It’s a shame that we’re struggling to hire even a few African-Americans down there and then the few District people down there have to deal with this.”

There’s more about the story from the Examiner; however, this is disheartening considering the “Jena 6″ case and the whole flap with Tiger Woods.

This may be a case of jealously, anger and intimidation, but it shows as far as we have come ahead, there’s a lot of work to do.