Yesterday, D.C. United announced that the Anschutz Entertainment Group had sold the team’s operating rights to an ownership group led by Victor MacFarlane, a real estate and urban development executive. While rumored for several months, the sale came as a surprise, given the details of the deal that emerged yesterday. MacFarlane, who heads the largest minority-owned real estate group in the country, will be joined by Will Chang, the chairman of a global investment…

Stick a fork in ’em? The Nationals’ three game cross-country trip to San Diego, which started out on a high note with Friday night’s 5-1 victory (John Patterson was brilliant – 9IP, 3H, 0BB, 1R, 6K), ended in the worst way possible: back-to-back heartbreaking losses that might have finally, quietly, snuffed out their 2005 playoff hopes. As you remember, the banged-up Nats left for the West Coast on Thursday a giddy bunch, with their…

Continuing in what has been a rough few months for baseball, Rafael Palmeiro of the Baltimore Orioles — the team many District residents called their own prior to the arrival of the Nationals — was given a 10-day suspension today for steroid use, reports the Post. The O’s first baseman, who only two weeks ago celebrated his milestone 3,000 hits and 500+ home-runs, is the tenth player suspended so far this season for failing steroid…

While DCist was expecting the Post’s editorial board to support bringing baseball into the District, their staff editorial brings up a few logical points that dispells Baltimore Orioles owner Bud Selig’s concerns about the impact a potential move by the Montreal Expos to the Washington region. From the Post:THE BEST ARGUMENT for bringing major league baseball back to the nation’s capital lies on the other side of the continent, in the San Francisco Bay area….