Ah how talented our Washington Nationals are. They came out both the winner and the loser yesterday. They were winners in the game being played off the field, but still the loveable (for how much longer?) losers on the field.

If Tom Boswell is to be believed, then the new owner of the Nats is too good to be believed. After a year of tricky politics and everything short of outright bribes, Ted Lerner has finally come out on top of the dog fight to be the owner of the Nationals. He grew up loving sports in DC and even turned his first dime selling programs for the Redskins. One of the few billionaires in the country that hasn’t had his life played out in the tabloids he seems to be a bit out of place in the District. Plus, he was exactly what MLB was looking for; a rich white guy willing to buy a mediocre team.

And for that reason alone he’s going to be crucified locally. With the sinner casting the first stone being the former crackhead mayor, Marion Barry. His comments about MLB wanting to ‘rent blacks’ is low even for him. Baseball has been at the lead among professional sports in trying to get minorities involved in owning and running teams. Their attempts to get minority ownership are a far better effort than what the NFL is doing in getting blacks hired as coaches.

But two days after making the ‘token’ comments there was Barry on stage with, and shaking the hand of, Lerner promising to be a good partner for the team. That’s how life is in the Big City. Talk shit on a guy one day and then do business with him the next. But the best part is where Barry said his views had changed based on “what appears to be meaningful African American participation”. In other words, he got promised a project in his district that he could make some cash on.