This is your obligatory "I got nuthin'" post. Nats gain an owner, lost a game. (I'll take that trade; it's not like we're unaccustomed to the feeling of defeat by now.) Nats gain a new team president, in Stan Kasten, and lose an old one, in Tony Tavares. (Oh well; circle of life.)
My freshman year, I once stayed up about 70 straight hours, studying and taking finals. When I was done, I felt sort of tired. I feel a bit like that now---just kind of tired, can't think of anything to note. It's been a long journey to this point. Go back and read old Post and Times articles from last May, June, and July; I dare you to isolate any difference in them from the articles we read until two or three weeks ago.
Seven Years in Tibet was long and drawn-old. This was something just short of hell. It was like my re-occurring nightmare of being stuck in a Costco or Sam's Club, trying to buy items, but without a membership card---a ridiculous purgatorial impasse.
But now that's all over, and I can't think of anything profound to say---or even closer to my signature style, which is, of course, tedious. I guess I'm just worn out.
Well, that's not entirely true: I'm also feeling sort of lazy.
So I'll leave you with a scoop. You know how the new owners held their introductory press conference at 7:00 pm? A bit late for that sort of thing, right? Hell, the presser abutted with the Nats' game, which started pretty much at the same time. Rather odd, you'd say?
Have you wondered why this was? Wonder no more. The Lerner/Kasten group was holding a team-building activity at Six Flags:
Pa Lerner: developer, owner,
waveriding machine.
You think that's impressive? You should see what happened when Stan Kasten stepped out for a few moments while Big Ted was taking that tire down the water slide:
Stan Kasten pops a wheelie,
contemplates the farm system.
Ah, I'll cut the fluff. I listened to the 7:00 pm presser, and verily, I am pumped up. For all of this stuff about Lerner being a "Howard Hughes"-type, he sounded quite normal---a bit sentimental of the old Senators, but that's not really what one would call a bad thing, obviously. And Kasten was positively inspired; he says that the Nats will be "the next baseball phenomenon."
It all changes today. Things won't change overnight, but today promises that change will indeed be made---and, for one day's worth of change, it's one hell of a change.
May 3, 2006: the day when this team started down the road of being an actual organization.
Update [2006-5-3 23:44:4 by Basil]: Whoops---forgot something. I'll let Ryan explain, since he has the same problem I do: I can't watch the games.