Money Players Line Up for Nats

It's the bottom of the ninth, the final at-bat for the eight groups vying to spend $450 million to buy the Washington Nationals. On the eve of the team's last three games this season, Manager Frank Robinson and the Nats gathered last night to launch the team's charitable foundation. We stopped by the $500,000 black-tie shindig at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel to read the tea leaves. Most of the big bidders had sprung for $10,000 tables, surely proving that they care deeply about the community and wouldn't move the team.

Ladies and gents, a partial scorecard for the bidding game:

· The Washington Baseball Club, headed by Fred Malek and Jeff Zients, who are convinced that Major League Baseball would be crazy not to sell to local owners and that Commissioner Bud Selig is highly sensitive to the needs of D.C. fans. "Whoever it is will have my full, undivided support," Malek promised.

· Jonathan Ledecky, who teamed up with financier George Soros in a wildly optimistic move, given that Soros led a $25 million offensive to defeat President Bush, a former owner of the Texas Rangers. Not that politics matters in this town.

· The Lerner Family of Bethesda, whose members are so discreet and low-profile we can't even gossip about them."Forget you saw me," said Mark Lerner with a grin.

· Jeff Smulyan , the Indianapolis media mogul who has kissed up to everyone in Washington in the past two days, which means he's either frantically trying to save his bid or has the deal in his pocket. Oddly, he had "a prior commitment" last night and didn't attend the dinner.

· Developer Franklin Haney Sr. , one of the quietest contenders for the team, announced he would match the evening's proceeds dollar for dollar, up to $600,000. Did he think that would improve his chances? "I would doubt it would make any difference whatsoever," he said with a laugh.

Sports pundits swear on their pouches of chewing tobacco that the decision is still up in the air. If there's no announcement in the next two weeks, we'll have to wait until November: Nothing comes between MLB and World Series ratings.

Foreign Affairs

Back in the day, no one got too bothered by supermodels doing coke. Why, it was almost a job requirement! So long as they could wake up looking dewy for a day in front of hot lights and a night as lead-guitarist arm candy, our beloved glamazons were under no compulsion to live by the same laws as us mortals.*

But the rules have changed, as Kate Moss learned last week. We weren't shocked when the U.K.'s Daily Mirror printed a photograph of the former icon of heroin chic (remember that scrawny, sallow look?) seeming to take a noseful. But the fashion execs? H&M, Burberry and Chanel dropped her like a hot pipe.

Moss apologized and yesterday British newspapers reported that she has embarked on the standard first step in our new era's Celebrity Redemption Cycle: Entering an Arizona rehab clinic. Cannot wait to see her cry on Oprah !

* Janice Dickinson, No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel (New York: Regan Books, 2002), 1-320.