"The Lerner family and the rest of the group are cheap bastards great people. It's a great atmosphere to work in. I never had any problems with any of them. It has been a long process, but I don't think any of it has been grueling, frustrating or anything like that. It just shows what kind of people they are."
(Ryan Zimmerman, via Nationals dot com, 4/20/2009)
Just don't call Zim the Face of the Franchise, okay*?
It's really official now: Nats lock up Zim for 5 years, $45 Million. No club option.
*If we remember correctly, Stan Kasten dropped a Classic, saying something about how calling Zim the Face of the Franchise isn't fair; that the Nats have "25 Faces of the Franchise". Ah, hold the phone! Thanks to SBF over at Nats 320, here's the complete quote from Stan:
"A lot of you have referred to him as Face Of The Franchise. And that is something I am uneasy with because it is not fair to a 24 Year Old to call him that. It is also not fair to the other 24 guys in the locker room. I feel strongly we have 25 Faces Of The Franchise."
In other words: Julian Tavarez is The Face of the Franchise! At 1-10, it seems sort of fitting, actually. Hey, where's that StanSpeak Translator when we need it?
As an aside, the press conference was fascinating wasn't it? Zimmerman spent most of the time looking really bored (or nervous?), looking off camera (maybe watching himself on the TV monitors?) while Mark Lerner and Stan Kasten pontificated. Stan looked like he was ready to jump out of his seat during Mark Lerner's entire soliloquy. Fascinating.
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