Last year, there was no World Series. Next year, the Series might be played in RFK Stadium. Life sure is ironic. Or baseball is a mess. Take your pick.

Here they come now, the Washington Astros: Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Dave Magadan, Derek Bell, Doug Drabek, Shane Reynolds, Greg Swindell and Darryl Kile. They missed the National League’s wild card berth by one game in 1995. They were the second-best hitting team in the league with above-average pitching, too. They’re as legitimate on paper as the Orioles. On the field, they were better.

So, why shouldn’t the ‘Stros move to Northern Virginia, play for a couple of years in RFK while their new park gets built near Dulles, sign a few free agents with Bill Collins’s big bucks and go to the World Series next year? Stranger things happen. The Colorado Rockies made the playoffs. The Cleveland Indians may be world champs. Why, the Bullets might get a correct diagnosis.

You’re laughing at me so hard right now that you’ve probably knocked your coffee into your corn flakes, haven’t you? “He’s been writing about this new Nats team that isn’t coming for 20 years. He’s finally gone around the bend.”