Washington Nationals Have An Owner

As word spread through the home clubhouse at RFK Stadium that Major League Baseball had chosen a new owner for the Washington Nationals, most players shared two reactions. The first was: Finally! The other was: What, exactly, will this mean for the team?

Pitcher Joey Eischen felt the most immediate impact of Wednesday's news, saying he was told by manager Frank Robinson to take his golf clubs - normally an everyday sight in the locker room - out to his truck. "Change of regime, change of everything," said Eischen, a reliever whose second stint with the franchise began in 2000. "Maybe some other people would gripe if they took their favorite toy out of the clubhouse. I'm excited about the change. What's in the past is in the past. Today is a day of new. It's going to be great for this team. I'm really glad the league doesn't have any fingers on us anymore."

Major League Baseball at long last picked someone to buy the Nationals, choosing a group that's led by Maryland-based real estate developer Theodore Lerner and includes former Atlanta Braves executive Stan Kasten. "This has been a long journey. ... While I do apologize for the time, I think history will prove it maybe was time well spent," commissioner Bud Selig said in announcing the $450 million agreement.

"Wow, it's been some kind of day," Lerner said at a news conference with a dozen members of the ownership group. "It's something I've been thinking about all my life, from the time I used to pay 25 cents to sit in the bleachers at Griffith Stadium."

"I always felt like without ownership we were at a disadvantage," current Nationals manager Frank Robinson said. "Major League Baseball has done the best they possibly could toward us, but it was a very unique situation and we were not able to do things that other organizations are able to do."

Kasten called Robinson, Tavares and Bowden "three terrific professionals who have had to work under the worst conditions I've ever seen. None of us would ever want to be in that position. We're going to spend money on the minor leagues, player development and scouting," Kasten said.