Bowden's run with Nationals was a mess

Sunday, March 1, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

Jim Bowden is gone, because there was no way he could be effective as the Washington general manager, with federal and internal investigations swirling around him and the team. Years from now, this might be viewed as a turning point for an organization that is viewed as nothing less than a mess within Major League Baseball circles.

This will be the Nationals' fifth season in Washington, and their second season in their new ballpark. But there has been staggeringly little progress made by the team, in the way that a lot of mid-market teams have made progress, an intransigence reflected in the club's abysmal TV ratings.  
 

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider
  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

Links

Subscribe

RSS RSS Feed

Recent Updates

Archive

More