Thursday, May 04, 2006

The Last Ownership Round-Up, I Hope

There are a bazillion and one articles in the Post/Times/Express/DailyPlanet/Times-Courier/Beacon-Eagle, etc.

District of Baseball and WWN have done a yeoman's effort in linking to them all. Check them out for everything you wanted to know about Ted* (* but were afraid to ask)

Mr. Yurasko attended the Press Conference and reports on it here and here.

He also took a number of photos of the event.

  • Boswell tries summing up Lerner:
    For many, the surprise about Lerner, as he spoke at a televised news conference yesterday evening, is that he seems utterly normal. "I did not know I was such a man of mystery," he said. And you believe him. He just looks like a guy who hates snooty cocktail parties and has a couple billion reasons he never has to go to another one. At 80, he looks so fit and formidable you mistake him for 70. His foursquare features don't evoke "rich," but rather "ex-middleweight." His fortune came from his gazillion buildings and malls. Who knew he would look like he'd hammered them together himself?

  • Expect Bowden to stick around, at least for the short-term:
    "I have total respect for Jim," Lerner said. "I think he's done an amazing job under the worst conditions possible for running a professional sports franchise. We're supportive of him, and the ultimate decision on him or anyone else in the organization is Stan's. But certainly Jim is going to be here for the foreseeable future."

  • Tony Tavares, however, is almost out of a job:
    Tavares and Kasten spoke by phone at about 4:30 p.m. yesterday, the beginning of a transition that Tavares said "will not be cumbersome." ... He is about to be out of a job and has no idea what he will do, but he said in an interview yesterday that he thinks the transition should come sooner rather than later.

  • Buried in the end of a Times article is the most encouraging news of the day. Unfortunately, it's basically a throwaway line.
    MLB officials are close to working out a compromise between Comcast and Angelos, and the D.C. Council this week passed a bill to pressure Comcast into carrying MASN in the city. But it's widely believed that a new owner could help bring all sides to an agreement sooner.

    "There's only one acceptable solution, and that's for all the games to be on in every home in the Washington area," said Stan Kasten, expected to take over as president of the Nationals. "Since it's in everyone's best interests, that's what we're going to have since nothing else is acceptable. We're going to get there."

  • 2 Comments:

    • I hope that's true.

      But we know that Kasten likes Bowden, at least on a personal level. And Mark Lerner supposedly likes him as well.

      With strong leadership in place, Bowden can be managed, serving as sort of a caretaker. If Kasten and Lerner both like to micromanage, I can envision a scenario with them keeping him around, as someone they can control.

      Hopefully that's just a nightmare though. ;)

      By Blogger Chris Needham, at 5/04/2006 11:43 AM  

    • Lerner should have said "You are doing a heckuva job Bowdes."

      In no way shape or form I am buying the Bowdes can be handled with other tough guys around like Kasten.
      I like Dayton Moore, Kim Ng or Chris Antonetti to take over.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5/04/2006 2:09 PM  

    Post a Comment

    << Home