The Washington, DC, sports community was given a jolt this week, when Nationals manager Jim Riggleman abruptly resigned.
He quit on the hottest team in baseball, who had won something like 13 straight and were a handful of games over .500.
The Nats are a former client of mine and I greatly enjoyed my time working with them, but this is NOT a good thing for the organization. 
Apparently, Riggleman, who was in the last year of his contract, wanted to start talking about an extension. According to Riggleman, he was not DEMANDING an extension, but wanted to start talking about it.
Nats GM Mike Rizzo allegedly declined, and then all heck broke loose.
This is a delicate situation that is not pleasant for either side. I don’t know enough of the facts to take one side, since this is seemingly the last chapter in an epic saga that has finally hit the public stage.
I will say this, however: Riggleman gave up a well-paid job managing the hottest team in baseball as they were playing their best ball to do NOTHING.
That’s what the public sees and that has to be embarrassing to the Nationals.
Perhaps he isn’t the manager they want long-term. Perhaps everyone in the organization hates him. Perhaps they are winning DESPITE him.
Doesn’t matter to the fans watching on TV and buying tickets to the ballpark.
Fans see the manager walking away, saying “I’d rather sit at home, leave six figures of salary on the table and be mocked in public than work for your team one more day.”
This situation will be a blemish on both parties for quite some time.
Quick PR tips for both sides:
For Riggleman: Your main talking point should be that managing a baseball team properly requires support from management and ownership. Players bringing home million of dollars in guaranteed salary need to know the organization is on the same page. They won’t listen to someone who is obviously on the way out. And what sort of self-respecting man would be that lame-duck?
For the Nationals: Riggleman was fairly compensated the manage the team for the 2011 season. What more faith does an organization need to show than a paycheck every two weeks? The team preferred to gather a season’s worth of data, then make a decision on the manager for the 2012 season and beyond. Riggleman has been a great leader and mentor, with the proof in the pudding with the recent hot streak, and the entire organization is disappointed in how his tenure is ending.
I hate playing the blame game, but that’s exactly what both sides need to be doing right now.
Yeah I agree with you about this being a strange incident and neither side looking real good. I hope that Jim Riggleman will get another job somewhere b/c I thought he did a good job with what he had to work with here in DC.
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