Wanted: Owner, Home, Some Offense

Changes Coming for Nationals Baseball

The media darling of the first half of the 2005 baseball season, the Nationals currently remain orphaned, as the team is still without an owner in its first offseason in Washington. The Nationals have been owned by the league since 2002, when former owner Jeffrey Loria sold the team to the league and then turned around and bought the Marlins. After designing the most expensive World Series rings ever, Loria then threatened to move his new team unless he got a new stadium.

Speaking of new stadiums, the Nationals are also due one of those. When the league finalized plans to move the team to DC last December, the city agreed to finance a $440 million new 41,000-seat stadium (the estimated price tag is now up to $535 million). This new park would supposedly be open by 2008 and be located on the Anacostia River, a block from the Navy Yard metro stop. Last Thursday, the league and the city met to hammer out the final lease agreement for the stadium, which is the last thing that needs to be finished before the new ownership group is selected.

There are currently eight finalists in the ownership pageant. The frontrunner appears to be a group headlined by venture capitalist Frederic Malek and also includes former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Malek was part-owner of the Bush-owned Texas Rangers and also managed Bush Sr.’s extremely successful reelection campaign. You, however, might have a much closer tie to one of the other prominent ownership groups in contention. In fact, you might be reading this column sitting in a building that bears his name.

Ted Lerner, who earned an LLB from the Law School and has several buildings that bear his name on campus, is also in the running. A self-made real estate mogul, Lerner has tried and failed for thirty years to buy a Major League Baseball team (he also was outbid by Mr. Synder for the Redskins in 1999). Lerner’s ownership group consists of only one person outside his family – Fox Sports broadcaster James Brown. A Lerner-owned Washington Nationals would certainly be beneficial to students – one of you could network your way into becoming the new, youngest GM in baseball.

The team’s current GM, Jim Bowden, was himself a former youngest GM in baseball when he became the Reds’ GM at the age of 31 in 1992. He is responsible for the highly successful Ken Griffrey Jr. trade and was also the baseball analyst for ESPN’s Cold Pizza before coming to Washington. Bowden also compared a potential MLB strike to 9/11 in 2002. Yikes!

Bowden’s success with the Nats has been so-so. Working with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, Bowden assembled a team that was in first place heading into the All-Star break. The Nats then hit a brick wall and finished last in the NL East for the second-straight year. While the team excelled in close games at the beginning of the year, the team’s abysmal offense could not keep the wins coming in the second half (in fact, the Nationals finished dead last in every major batting statistic, a pretty remarkable feat if you think about it). $4.2 million of the team’s $48 million payroll went to shortstop Cristian Guzman, who was one of the absolute worst offensive players in the league, putting up what was arguably the worst offensive season for a regular in the history of Major League Baseball. Another $3 million went to 3B Vinny Castilla, who was just shipped out of town last week for Padres pitcher Brian Lawrence.

Bowden’s contract was only extended through April, leading Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser to suggest Theo Epstein as the team’s next GM. With the league expected to announce the new ownership group sometime in the next two weeks (maybe by the time you read this column), the Nationals can finally settle into their new home. With a new owner, stadium, and GM, the Nationals can work on building a quality franchise in the District. One suggestion for the new owners though: no ushers in the new stadium. Thanks.