Let’s eschew the normal post-game thoughts for tonight. You can read all about the Nats’ 7-2 win over Houston in our game story here. They have won three in a row and are now 65-88. Just five wins in their final nine games would give them 70 overall – an 11-game improvement over the past two seasons.
But off-the-field matters take precedence. Stan Kasten resigned his position as team president on Thursday. He left us with an entertaining, 18-minute interview that was classic Kasten: The ultimate salesman explaining why he had to leave while still maintaining that the organization will be fine. His sarcastic sense of humor was on display mixed with some melancholy. Read the main details here. The big question now: How does this change the organization going forward?
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No one really knows. It seems unlikely the Lerner family would bring in an outside presence to take over the traditional president’s role. Andrew Feffer, the chief operating officer hired in January, is in control on the business side along with Bob Wolfe, the team’s executive vice president. The Lerner’s approved the hiring of Mike Rizzo as general manager last summer and allowed him to seed the front office with respected hires from around Major League Baseball. It would make little sense to jettison them all after one year or bring someone in who would.
But those are questions for another day. For now, we say goodbye to Kasten, one of professional sports’ true characters. The man was a walking firecracker, pulsing with energy as he strode through the locker room or lobbed sarcastic jokes at anyone who crossed his path during batting practice. This is the same guy – at age 58 – who a month ago smashed a pie in his general manager’s face after the signing of No. 1 draft pick Bryce Harper. He intentionally sat with his back to the dugout wall when meeting with reporters Thursday and gave Rizzo a sideways glance.
“I need the wall because I do not trust Rizzo to be behind me with a shaving cream pie, so I wasn’t going to take that chance,” Kasten cracked.
Rizzo is no shrinking violet, either. “It will be a whipped cream pie and it will happen.”
Kasten kept people on their toes, for sure. But as Washington Examiner columnist Thom Loverro writes it never seemed like Kasten had as much freedom as he needed. Yes, he pushed for Rizzo to get the job as permanent GM. And he probably would have cashed out former GM Jim Bowden earlier, except he was a Lerner favorite. Bowden’s tenure ended in shame with the notorious Dominican Republic prospect scandal.
Kasten has never seemed the sentimental type. But he did choke up briefly while telling Washington’s players and staff about his imminent departure. He even wore shades during his media session and his voice caught when talking about the city of Washington, the friends he’d made here and how he’d come to love his time in the District. Kasten’s son, Jay, is a junior at the University of Maryland and was by his side in the dugout.
“I’ve been a fortunate guy in waking up every day in a place I love doing a thing I love,” Kasten said. “So I can’t say it’s been weighing on me. There are plenty of people who knew about this throughout the game, all over the industry. So from time to time, that issue would come up. We knew this day would come. It’s a sentimental, melancholy day, especially as I was talking to the players.”
Kasten had his critics. He can come across as a used-car salesman at times, pushing optimism for a future that – while there is certainly light at the end of what’s been very long tunnel – has yet to materialize. The farm system is better than when the Lerners took over, but nowhere near the sport’s best. There are talented young major-leaguers already on the roster, including Ryan Zimmerman and Stephen Strasburg. But it hasn’t come together yet on the field. And as the losses mounted – back-to-back 100-loss seasons in 2008 and 2009 – everyone in the organization took a hit to their reputation.
Some Nats fans were furious earlier this season when Kasten promoted Opening Day tickets to Nationals Park on a Philadelphia radio station, inviting Phillies fans to make the drive down I-95. A majority of the crowd that day was rooting for Philadelphia. Attendance has cratered late in the season with crowds routinely below 12,000. The Nats – even with a bump thanks to Strasburg’s hyped debut – rank 23rd in attendance in 2010. But even now Kasten still believes in the Nats and baseball in the District.
“No question about it. This is a big market both in size, an enormous market in terms of wealth and demographics,” Kasten said. “Listen, we had 1.8 million people come to watch a team that’s losing 95 to 105 games a year. That extraordinary support for a team that hasn’t earned it yet.”
He just won’t be around to see it. And in a lot of ways that’s a shame. But, Kasten says, the organization is in good hands. Time will tell is that’s true. Either way, he believes he’s done all he can.
“There’s this ‘The king is dead, long live the king.’ The franchise is strong and going to go on,” Kasten said as he ended an 18-minute conversation. “Really strong ownership. As I said, a great apparatus now in place on the baseball side as well as the business side. So I wouldn’t concern myself with it. I’m not concerned about it.”
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