| Page 2 of 2 < |
For Nats, It's Hard To Dig In
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
If anything, the players have the least to fear as they contemplate the future. As is the case throughout baseball, their comings and goings are dictated more by an increasingly open marketplace than by the philosophies of ownership. It is not uncommon for players on all teams to rent an apartment in the team's home city, but spend their offseasons wherever "home" is.
"I spent five and a half years in the minors, always on the move," said Nationals reliever Gary Majewski, 25, a third-year player who rents an apartment in Washington. "Guys are used to moving around. You could buy a house somewhere, and -- bam -- you get traded."
In January, Nationals catcher Brian Schneider signed a contract that will keep him with the franchise for four more years, giving up his right to free agency, for which he would have been eligible at the end of the 2007 season. At the time he signed, the Nationals' future in Washington appeared more secure than it does now, but Schneider said he has no regrets.
"I just wanted to be with the Nationals," he said. "It's the only organization I've ever been with. This is just another hurdle in the road."
Meantime, Tavares, whose real home is in Lake Tahoe, Nev., laughs at the irony of living life like a ballplayer -- in an apartment in a city thousands of miles from home, with a roommate who is also a teammate, on a year-to-year lease.
Would he be living like this were it not for the Nationals' unique situation?
"I would hope not," he said, "unless my roommate were very beautiful, and as long as my wife didn't mind."
