WASHINGTON (AP) — Dave Martinez was asked about the rivalry between the Nationals and Orioles — specifically, whether it's actually become much of one — and his answer was blunt.
“Honestly, no,” Washington's manager said. “It really hasn't.”
That might come as news to quite a few fans in the area — and a handful of lawyers — but what Martinez seemingly meant was despite the proximity of the franchises, there isn't a great deal of animosity when they play. As rivalries go, this one's been pretty friendly on the field.
“I got a lot of respect for what they do, and I know that they feel the same way about what we do here,” Martinez said. “We know they've got a very good young team. We've got a very good young team, playing pretty good right now. So should be fun. Fans should be excited. Two teams that are very close."
Washington's 3-0 victory over Baltimore on Tuesday night was the first of four scheduled meetings this season between the teams, separated by about 40 traffic-heavy miles. The Nationals are in their 20th season in D.C. since arriving from Montreal. That move was fought by Orioles ownership, and an agreement was reached that put both teams on the same TV station, with the Orioles having a significantly larger ownership stake in the regional sports network.
It's taken quite a bit of arbitration and litigation to determine the Nationals' telecast rights fees, but that legal wrangling through the years hasn't necessarily filtered down to the players or even the fans.
“It's kind of another game, another series that we need to go out there and win. They just happen to be next door,” Orioles left-hander John Means said. “The fact that we're not in the same division and different league in general, just makes it a little tougher to have that kind of rivalry.”
And lately, Baltimore has been managed by Brandon Hyde and Washington by Martinez. The two won a World Series together as coaches with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.
“I don't have any animosity toward Davey. I love Davey. Maybe I'll start a little bit this series,” Hyde joked. “There's a lot of respect."
There were actually a couple ejections in Tuesday's game, but that was because Hyde and Orioles designated hitter Ryan O'Hearn got into it with the plate umpire — not any of their opponents.
There was one indication that this was not a run-of-the-mill game: Both teams wore their special City Connect uniforms — the first time two major league teams wore them in the same game. There were plenty of fans of both teams on hand to enjoy them.
But it's been hard for the Nationals and Orioles to establish a major rivalry, what with the teams in different leagues. Mets-Yankees in New York and Cubs-White Sox in Chicago are two examples of emotionally charged interleague battles, but the proximity between Washington and Baltimore isn't quite the same. Fans in this area can be territorial toward each other, but only sometimes.
The NHL's Washington Capitals, for example, have plenty of support in the Baltimore area — and a lot of D.C.-area baseball fans supported the Orioles before the Nationals arrived.
It might help if the Nationals and Orioles were good at the same time, but that's been rare. Both teams made the postseason in 2012, 2014 and 2016, but those are the only times it's happened, and they've never made it past the Division Series in the same year.
Perhaps that will change soon. The Orioles had the best record in the American League last year, and the same is true so far in 2024. It was no surprise that plenty of their orange-clad fans were among the announced crowd of 29,542 on Tuesday at Nationals Park for the season's first Beltway Series.
Washington lost 91 games last year, but the win Tuesday put the Nationals above .500 for the first time since July 2021.
“My first year here they were really good, and then we've both kind of gone in weird kind of directions," Hyde said. "We're still super close. I have a lot of respect — (ex-Orioles reliever) Hunter Harvey's over there too. He's a fan of a lot of people in our clubhouse. It's a friendly rivalry.”
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Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams (32) delivers against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning of a baseball game at Nationals Park in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Washington Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz (20) catches the ball as Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman (35) swings and misses during the third inning of a baseball game at Nationals Park in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Washington Nationals second base Luis García Jr. (2) steals second base as Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jordan Westburg (11) bobbles the during the first inning of a baseball game at Nationals Park in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
CANNES, France (AP) — A month before Kevin Costner puts the first installment of his multi-chapter Western “Horizon: An American Saga” into theaters, the actor-director came to the Cannes Film Festival to unveil his self-financed passion project.
“Two of my boys are out fishing right now,” Costner said with a grin in an interview at the Carlton Hotel. “And the three girls found their way onto a boat. So dad’s in here, stumping for his movie.”
The movie is actually two, or if Costner has his way, four. “Horizon: Chapter One,” which runs three hours, will be released by Warner Bros. in theaters June 28. “Chapter Two” follows August 16. Costner has scripts ready for parts three and four.
It's only the fourth time Costner, 69, has directed, following 1990’s “Dances With Wolves,” 1997’s “The Postman" and 2003’s “Open Range." But when he has, Costner has usually done it with a clear-eyed passion for storytelling and character. That's on display in the wide-ranging epic “Horizon,” with a cast including Sienna Miller, Abbey Lee, Sam Worthington and Costner.
It's also Costner's biggest gamble, ever. To raise the money for the $100 million-plus production, he mortgaged his seaside Santa Barbara, California, estate. He's been trying to make “Horizon” for more than 30 years.
“I thank God for Cannes. I’m an independent filmmaker, essentially, and I’m here by myself," said Costner, whose film was to premiere Sunday. "So this is a high moment for me because it’s helping me create awareness for a movie. I don’t have all the money in the world to expose this movie. But I have my time and a platform here.”
Remarks have been lightly edited for brevity.
COSTNER: You can spend your life just trying to make your pile grow bigger and bigger. And I’ve not been really terribly great at that. I’m like anyone else, I’d like it to be big. But not at the expense of not doing what I feel like I’ve love to do. If no one will help me do it and I believe strongly in its entertainment value — there’s commerce on my mind. But I don’t let it overshadow the entertainment value and essence of what I’m trying to portray. I don’t try to let the fear of that control my instincts on any level. I don’t want to live that way. If I was watching a movie about me and I thought, “Oo, don’t risk your money and make something like that," what a (expletive).
COSTNER: No, it wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the decision I needed to make. It’s like, wow, why am I having to do this? I think I’m making mainstream entertainment. I don’t know what you felt about the movie but I felt like it’s really mainstream. I don’t feel that I’m an avant-garde type of a person. But yet I think my things are a little off. I’m willing to (in a wagon trail scene in the film) see a woman bathe because her desire to be clean was so pronounced. If you’re a woman, who wouldn’t want to be? But then in the next moment, you realize it’s against the rule, man. You could cost yourself your life. So that scene became important to make the next scene important. To me, a scene like that is just as important as a gun fight. And if that kind of scene doesn’t want to exist in a mainstream movie…
COSTNER: I guess. It will be. They’re going to break this up into a hundred pieces, you know what I mean? After four of these, they’re going to have 13, 14 hours of film and they’re going to turn into 25 hours of TV, and they’re going to do whatever they’re going to do. That’s just the way we live in our life but they’ll also exist in this form. And that was important for me, to make sure that happened. And I was the one who paid for it.
COSTNER: The studio wanted to try that. I knew this was going to come out fairy quickly, like every four or five months. That may have been easier. But this is something they feel like people can remember the first one and it can tie into the second one. I built into all of them a montage of what’s coming.
COSTNER: I like seeing behavior in men that makes sense. I make movies for men. I just make sure there’s great women characters because that’s really important to me. The backbone of our movie is actually women. I don’t like boys behaving stupid. I like the little boy who (fleeing an attack) takes the two horses and effectively saves his life. I like seeing people behave honestly in desperate situations. The heroism of a little boy saying “I’ll stay with you, Dad” is a really powerful moment. That’s my son (Hayes Costner) and it was very hard to watch.
COSTNER: Confusion about it. The colonel says, “If we salt the earth with enough of their dead, the wagons won’t come anymore.” When you’re that far out there, you can’t go. When people said goodbye in the East Coast, they didn’t come back. So the confusion for the Native American was they couldn’t make sense of that. Normally if you kill enough people they won’t bother you. But these Americans, these people were getting flyers saying you could have this land. There are salesmen in every century, every decade selling something they don’t really know what it is. It’s just America. It’s just this giant experiment of hope.
COSTNER: When they weren’t useful, they were just cast away. And they had to create a sense of community and they came en masse. They came together and they were very industrious. They’ll be the wealthiest people in that town until there’s a tipping point and racism kicks in and suddenly they’re gone, too. You watch. That’s what would happen in real life.
COSTNER: There’s inevitable tragedy to it. And there’s divisions. You see a whole tribe break in half. You see a father break from a son.
COSTNER: I’ve shot three days and I continue to have to press for money to finish this. I have to figure out what else I can do to make this. But I’m not waiting to see how people feel. I know what this is, and I think if people love the movie experience, they have a really good chance of wanting to see the next one. That’s all I can believe. The prudent thing would be to wait, but I guess I’m not built for that wait.
COSTNER: “Yellowstone” was really important in my life. I really loved that world and what we were able to do in five seasons. I only thought it would be one, but did five. I was willing to do three more – five, six and seven – but it just didn’t happen. Certain things were going on and it just didn’t happen. So the idea of going back, I’m open to that idea. But it’s based on everything that first three or four were based on, which is the scripts.
Kevin Costner, left, and Hayes Costner pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Kevin Costner poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Kevin Costner poses for a portrait photograph for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Isabelle Fuhrman, from left, Ella Hunt, Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, and Abbey Lee pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Kevin Costner poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Kevin Costner poses for a portrait photograph for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Sienna Miller, left, and Kevin Costner pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Kevin Costner poses for a portrait photograph for the film 'Horizon: An American Saga' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
