TEAM PRESIDENT SAYS "THIS IS JUST ABOUT ME."
With his college aged son sitting beside him on the top ledge of the Washington Nationals dugout, curly W's adorning the wall, Nats President Stan Kasten confirmed to the media that he would be resigning, effective at the end of this season.
He said at the beginning of his statements that he would talk today about his experiences with the team, and how and why his resignation came about, but preferred not to discuss his future plans, or go into any details about where he sees the team today or the progress in the organization, outside of very broad ideas.
He promised that he would talk about those things in more detail when the season was over, but for now, he wanted to confirm the news of his resignation and then "get back to baseball."
"When I came here...in 2006, I made a commitment to stay for five years, through the end of the 2010 season. About a year ago or so, I went to the family and told them I would not be staying beyond that five year commitment. So what I'm here to tell you today is that I'll be leaving the Nats at the end of the season."
"Let me assure you: This is just about me. This has nothing to do with anybody else, or anything else, this is just about me. What's good for me, for my family, and my own personal expectations, goals, aspirations. Purely that, and nothing else."
"Leaving here is going to be hard. But the decision to leave was not hard. It was just the right thing to do now."
He stressed several times that any rumors or reports that there was a rift with ownership regarding financial support for the organization were absolutely inaccurate.
"I have a great relationship with the Lerners. We had really good talks, but at the end this was clearly what I wanted to do. They have been great. Yes, I think they would have been really happy for me to stay, but this is the right thing."
Kasten expressed a strong feeling that he really felt ingrained in the community, and cited several prominent D.C. officials as friends.
"There's going to so much that I'm going to miss. First of all, I love DC. I truly do. I love living here, I love working here. The people that I have met here along the way have been exceptional."
For the rest of Kasten's comments, please visit Nats News Network.
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