I just got a text from Stephanie that Tommy Lasorda is on her plane ride from Miami to Washington DC this morning.  She talked to him for a few minutes when they took their seats.

Lasorda is in town promoting the World Baseball Classic and talking about how international baseball has become through the years. He will speak tomorrow at the Freer Gallery of Art at 3 p.m.  Free tickets will be distributed at noon.

The event also includes the screening of an ESPN documentary, “The Zen of Bobby V,” the story of Bobby Valentine.  The movie starts at 1 p.m.

For more information, click here.

This Friday, February 27th, McFaddens on Pennsylvania Ave will host a Save 2nd Base Fundraiser!  Tickets are $15 for open bar including beer and cocktails from the Pink beer and wine menu from 9pm-11pm.  Prizes and giveaways will be awarded all night.

Save Second Base is a unique and humorous phrase to support the fight against Breast Cancer. A play on words of the old baseball euphemism is now synonymous with a battle cry heard ‘round the globe! Save 2nd Base’s goal is to provide exposure for the mission of The Kelly Rooney Foundation.

Here’s a link to their online store.

Jeremy Sandler of the National Post in Toronto also shoots down the rumors, but offers this tidbit:

LaCava is a long-time scout who has connections to the Nationals front office. He worked under Washington president Stan Kasten when he ran the dominant Atlanta Braves teams of the 1990s. Though not under the direct control of Kasten as a national cross-checker, LaCava worked closely with his good friend and former Braves assistant general manager Dayton Moore.

Moore, the current GM in Kansas City, would be someone Kasten could speak with in broad terms about possible candidates to replace Bowden.

Jose Rijo is done, along with nine other members of the Dominican staff via Bill Ladson’s blog.

Mark Zuckerman also has a good update on where everything stands, including a tidbit about the ownership group being divided on what to do with Bowden and when.

Yeah, we’re all looking at you…

Lastly, I don’t even know where to start with this, without swearing, yelling and hurting someone’s hyper-sensitive feelings.  For now, I’ll just contemplate whether I’m a shark, a vulture or a just plain hater…or maybe all three.  That could be fun.

How about I close with a quote from everyone’s favorite Racing President instead of getting into what I really think.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

T. Roosevelt, 1918

Jorge Arangure Jr. from ESPN:

The Washington Nationals have decided to fire special assistant Jose Rijo and will shut down the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic as part of a restructuring of the team’s operations in Latin American in the wake of an age-changing scandal involving one of the team’s top prospects, several baseball sources have confirmed.

The team’s academy operates out of a complex owned by Rijo in San Cristobal.

Nationals assistant general manager and vice president Mike Rizzo arrived in Santo Domingo on Tuesday to look for alternative sites for the team’s Dominican academy. Rizzo also met with Fernando Ravelo, general manager for the Dominican Winter League Tigres de Licey, about replacing Rijo as the team’s director of Dominican operations.

When asked whether he had been offered Rijo’s position, Ravelo told ESPNdeportes.com’s Enrique Rojas “Maybe.”

The Nationals have already contacted people in Boca Chica about the possibility of the team moving it’s academy into the area for the short term and possibly constructing an academy in the area. Most team academies are located in the Boca Chica region. Another source said the team spoke with the Los Angeles Dodgers about their facility. Tampa Bay currently rents space in Los Angeles’ Campo Las Palmas but they will move out of that complex by the end of the March to move into a brand new complex.

Jose Castellanos, the Dodgers director of operations in the Dominican Republic, had no comment when asked about the Nationals’ potential move.

Rijo told Rojas that he had not yet been contacted by the Nationals concerning his future with the team, but on Tuesday he admitted, “Considering the latest developments, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Nats apply drastic changes to their team operations in the Dominican Republic.”’

And later…

This move by Nationals ownership may not be a good sign for Bowden, who hired Rijo and has known him since Bowden was the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, where Rijo played from 1988-2002. Bowden was Cincinnati’s GM from 1993-2003.

Barry Syrluga of The Washington Post has the first interview with Carlos Daniel Alvarez Lugo, the player formerly known as Smiley Gonzalez.  Alvarez says his cousin thought up scheme to assume fake name, age.

In the interview, Carlos Daniel Alvarez Lugo — the boy who assumed both a fraudulent name, Esmailyn Gonzalez, and a fraudulent age, 13 when he was actually 17 — authored a whopper of a tale, helped by accomplices that he won’t, for now, identify other than a man he called his cousin. The Washington Nationals, whose officials from top to bottom say they were unaware of the scam, granted Alvarez a $1.4 million signing bonus in the summer of 2006 because they believed he was a promising 16-year-old shortstop, one who would turn 17 that September.

Now, Alvarez acknowledges, he was in fact a 20-year-old shortstop, one who actually turned 21 that November, and therefore a much less valuable commodity.

You can read the full article here.

Can you believe it?  Despite all the questions and rumors and distractions, it’s so nice that we can actually talk about baseball again.  Last year at this time we were in Florida, so happy that practice days had finally come to a close.  We traveled to Jupiter for the first game of the would-be miserable 2008 season.  We were thrilled.  Now, we’re stuck here in DC still but enjoying this moment from afar.

The Nats take on the Astros at 1:05 p.m. in Kissimmee.  It’s a beautiful little park.  We really should all be there, not here. Go Nats!

In other news…

Saul Rivera has decided to risk injury and over-use to play for his native Puerto Rico in the WBC.  Maybe we’re just jaded in DC after the last WBC, but we sure hope Saul holds up okay.  Pete Orr will play for Canada.  Several former Nats are also on the rosters and sixteen of the games will be aired on the MLB Network.

Rumors are circulating throughout the blogosphere that Jim is just about gone and that Tony LaCava is a potential replacement.  Keep up with all the latest rumors at FireJimBowden.  Any candidate that loves the Steelers gets off to a head start in our book.  And, Nats Farm Authority has a really nice summary of potential GM picks.

Enjoy the game!

Never a dull moment in NatsTown…

Sports Illustrated is on a roll this baseball season.  Could this finally be it?

NationalsFanboyLooser has an over-under on the exact day of his departure.  He also expresses a desire for the team to do a full search without automatically appointing Rizzo, an idea we agree with.  Steven at FJB has done a great job aggregating Bowden news and Nats Farm Authority has a great piece up about Ted Lerner (who you might consider writing a letter to regarding this whole mess if you’re so inclined…Consider it your civic duty as residents of NatsTown).

Apparently, the happy trio of Kasten, Acta and Bowden decided collectively to release Odalis Perez this morning for failing to report to camp.  On any other day, I’d care.  Today, it’s just a distraction.

THOM LOVERRO: Bowden not smiling anymore.  Loverro provides a number of non-subtle references to a solution that would make us all happy.

Also check out:

Jon Heyman’s winter grades:  Nationals:  “They have too many ex-Reds, far too many outfielders and first basemen, too few pitchers and one too many Jim Bowdens.”

Keith Law on Gonzalez/Lugo:  “It’s simply another black eye for an organization that is already a laughingstock in the industry.”

Don’t forget about Dan Steinberg, who is still making it impossible for us to get any real work done.

I also did a Q&A with Collin Balester over at MASNsports.com.

Dan Steinberg’s posts just keep coming and they are hilarious.  I hope he doesn’t have to come home soon.  If you’re not following his updates, you’re a bad citizen of Nats Town.

Warning: You’ll wish you were there too instead of stuck here in DC.