July 2, 2006

Welcome to the Bowden Era

In about 50 years I have high hopes for being around to see the publication of a book-length half-century retrospective on the Washington Nationals (or Senators, or Grays, or Monuments, whatever, you get the idea.) The first chapter or two will detail the history of baseball in Washington, DC and the relocation of the Montreal Expos. Long about Chapter Three I'm pulling for a section titled "The Jim Bowden Era: aka The Noncompetitive Years." My hopes and expectations aside, however, Bowden's Nats (shudder) have their first series victory of his Permanent GM-ship.

Reaction to Trader Jim's newfound job security falls into two fairly well-delineated camps: incredulous hysterical hostility, and forced hysterical optimism. In the former camp we find CapPun, the Distinguished Senators,
Nasty Nats, yours truly and to a lesser degree The Nats Blog (damn your substantive analysis, DM.) Special recognition goes to OMG for the finest possible audio analysis of the Kasten announcement.

In the latter camp are the type of people who undoubtedly said, "Hold on now, let's not rush to judgment, let's just see how this
New Coke thing plays out." (Just kidding, you guys are the greatest.) Flying the flag for eternal optimism: Curly W, the Federalist, Just a Nats Fan, Tom Boswell and the leather pants industry.

But hey, we're bloggers. If we weren't make ill-informed snap judgments without the benefits of hindsight or perspective, we'd have to find other outlets for our barely contained rage. So, hateful invective spewed at the Lerners, Stan Kasten and Trader Jim, or any sharp increase in workplace fisticuffs. The choice is yours.

The Jim Bowden All-Stars

Congratulations to reluctant outfielder Alfonso Soriano, the Nats lone representative on the 2006 NL All-Star team. Fonzie joins elite company, players that have made the all-star team in both leagues and at multiple positions. Additional proof that fans don't care about defense.

5 comments:

Nate said...

No, you cherry-picked the least hostile thing I wrote in a period of bone weary resignation. :)

I do not like this move, and rather than giving conditional assent to Bowden it makes me reflexively distrust the Lerners and Stan Kasten. I'm unwilling to give up rooting for the team, but my faith in the new management is severely shaken.

Nate said...

You journalistic reputation is unimpeachable.

Brandon said...

Come on now, Nate. We all know that New Coke didn't get a fair shake. After all, it was invented in Atlanta, where it just didn't have the resources to compete with the other soft drinks of its time, like Fanta and Tab.

But it sure was exciting to drink, wasn't it?

Anonymous said...

When did writing a blog become simply an act of reading other blogs and commenting on them? FB says this, CP says that, etc. This is the third such entry on the Bowden announcement that I've read today in the Natosphere. Why don't you guys all stop reading each others' pages and just report on your own opinions?

Nate said...

AC:

For my part, it's a shorthand way of identifying the broad opinion trends. If you read this blog, you already know my take on any given issue. This gives you an opportunity to go directly to what others have said/are saying on the topic.

Think of it as one-stop shopping. If you read every Nats blog every day (thank you) then you're right, this post was a bit redundant. But not everyone does.

I also like to acknowledge the good work done by fellow Nat(m)ospherians from time to time. Except for Needham. His stuff's trite and derivative. Thanks for the constructive criticism!