Stadium Spending Document Released – The Post
MLB has the legislation that the council passed early Wednesday morning. Commissioner Bud Selig was predictable in his remarks:
You think you’ve seen it all. And then you realize you haven’t,” Selig said in an interview yesterday. “I’ve been involved in 18 stadium negotiations, and all of them are difficult and controversial. I’ve been doing this my whole adult life. But this thing that happened in Washington tops them. It is already legendary in baseball for political intrigue. When it comes to demagoguery, a lot of what happened down there would have made Huey Long blush.
Um, dumbass, if you had not strung EVERYBODY along about naming an owner, you could have had something much closer to the rubberstamp lease that would have benefitted all involved. An eight-year-old could have forseen this nonsense. There is no high road for you to take — you, sir, are a national disgrace!
The lease PDF
More from The Wash. Times: MLB receives stadium lease papers
THOMAS BOSWELL – Time to Decipher D.C.’s Code – The Post
Boz is giving us MLB’s perspective again, but commenting as well; making a few points along the way:
Everywhere else, baseball has emotional leverage; the public drives its politicians into baseball’s arms. It protests. In the District, the sport has no such traction. Baseball should have done the homework necessary to figure this out. But it never did. When the sale price for the Nats jumped from $250 million to $450 million, it never crossed baseball’s mind to share some of the newfound wealth with the District, even though the city had just discovered that its stadium-building costs were skyrocketing.
Belatedly and grudgingly, baseball finally coughed up some cash and concessions. But by dawdling, it incinerated any political goodwill on the council. Other commissioners, like Peter Ueberroth, Bart Giamatti and Fay Vincent, would probably have seen in a flash that they needed to meet the District halfway before a firestorm of resentment arose. Share the sale-price windfall; share the cost-overrun pain. What Selig saw was that baseball had a legal contract for a park on the Anacostia. Besides, on Washington’s behalf, the commissioner had personally walked through hell with a gasoline suit named Angelos on his back…
Hopefully, Selig will throw in the towel and name owners and let the council be their problem.
Nats, Soriano Meet With Arbitrators – The Post
Today an arbitrator will decide just how overpaid Alf Soriano is going to be this year — $10 million or $12 million.
More from The Wash. Times: Soriano ruling expected today
EDITORIAL – Sammy Sosa to Washington? – The Wash. Times
Washington’s second paper wonders why the Nats want Sammy Sosa too.