By Leonard Shapiro
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, October 2, 2007; 12:27 PM

The Washington Nationals and MASN, the regional cable sports network that broadcasts their games, need to do the right thing and immediately re-sign play-by-play man Bob Carpenter to a long-term deal.

It also would be the right thing to apologize to him for some rather shabby treatment over the last few weeks, when Carpenter, the voice of the team the last two seasons, took the high road following the Nats' low-road decision to tell him his services no longer would be needed with two weeks still remaining on the 2007 schedule.

Let's get this straight. Carpenter is not the second coming, or the third or even fourth of Vin Scully, Ernie Harwell or Jon Miller, three of the greatest baseball broadcasters of all time. There have been times when he has been a tad too homer-ish for my taste, other times when his play-by-play style of identifying Nats by their first names only can be downright maddening, particularly for casual followers of the team.

But all-in-all, he's a perfectly competent professional baseball broadcaster who knows the game and the team he's covering, offers up more than occasional interesting insights and telling anecdotes and somehow manages to keep up his energy level over the very long haul of a 162-game regular season and spring training, as well.

So why did Nats team president Stan Kasten tell him two weeks ago that he likely would not have his two-year contract extended?

Kasten isn't saying anything for public consumption. Nor is MASN executive producer Chris Glass. Both declined through their respective spokesmen to comment for this article.

Other sources familiar with the situation indicated that the team's owners, the Lerner family, were not exactly enamored with Carpenter, if only because they were interested in possibly getting a bigger name as they prepare to move into their showcase new ballpark next season.

Carpenter's partner, analyst Don Sutton, a Hall-of-Fame pitcher and one of Kasten's good friends as well as his past employee when both were with the Atlanta Braves, also reportedly went to management during the season. He apparently expressed some concerns that his style did not always mesh with Carpenter's, even though it rarely came across in the broadcasts I occasionally tuned in to. Carpenter said he considered Sutton a friend, and the two shared many meals and tee times over the course of the season.

Still, Kasten reportedly had his eye on ESPN broadcaster Dan Shulman, who handles a variety of radio and television play-by-play assignments for the worldwide leader. But apparently, he didn't do enough due diligence. It turned out that not only is Shulman tied to ESPN contractually for another three years, he actually loves his job and apparently has no desire to be in a baseball stadium 185 times a year.

Of course the Nationals found this out after they had told Carpenter he likely would not be back next year. But when it became obvious to them that Shulman wasn't going anywhere, Kasten had a conversation with Carpenter this past Friday and told him the team was re-thinking its position, and that he very well could be offered a contract to stay.

I spoke with Carpenter by telephone on Monday as he was driving across the country back to his home in Tulsa. He was probably going to make a stop along the way to talk with another club that was interested in his services, but he also made it very obvious that he would dearly love to stay with the Nationals, despite the shabby way he's been treated.

"I'm in a holding pattern," he said. "I was approached (by the Nationals) last weekend and told that maybe it's not over, and in a week they'll let me know what they're thinking¿.It's a bizarre situation. The club has made no comment. I don't know if the reaction of fans has turned the tide. I just know the door is not closed. It's not wide open, but it's a lot more ajar."

The fan reaction Carpenter referred to involved quite a bit of criticism of MASN and team management over Carpenter's apparent dismissal in the blogosphere, in internet chat rooms devoted to the Nats, and in a number of angry e-mails received by both entities.

MASN spokesman Todd Webster confirmed there had been a heavy dose of pro-Carpenter fan reaction when word first leaked out that Carpenter had been told to look for another job two weeks ago.

"MASN is just trying to make sure that the team has the right broadcasting crew in 2008 and moving forward," Webster said. "Yes, MASN has received a high volume of e-mails in support of Bob Carpenter." He declined further comment.

Ironically, this past June, MASN was prepared to offer Carpenter a three-year extention of his original two-year deal signed in 2006. But the Lerners, who now own about 12 percent of the cable network (with a majority share held by Peter Angelos, the bumbling owner of the Baltimore Orioles), apparently wanted to explore other options and never signed off on the deal.

That's another issue that should be addressed -- these alarming partnerships that allow many baseball teams to dictate their choice of team broadcasters (some might say "good-seats-are-still-available" shills). The Nats have veto power an anyone MASN chooses, if only to make certain their positive, feel-good message comes across loud and clear over the airwaves every single night.

It's been like that in baseball, and many other sports, for years, but that doesn't make it right. The NFL, much to its credit, does not tell its network partners who they're allowed to hire to man the booth on Sundays. If they did, Howard Cosell never would have appeared on Monday Night Football to tell it like it was.

That's the way it should be done, but rarely is that the case at the regional and local broadcasting level. It's a major reason there are so many home team boosters in the booth these days in so many sports and you'll rarely hear any major criticism of the Washington Redskins on Dan Snyder's Red Zebra radio network.

But I digress.

The bottom line on Carpenter is that he deserves a chance to return to the booth in Washington, and a nice touch would be to offer him a two- or three-year deal. That at least would provide some continuity. Since baseball returned to the Nation's Capital three years ago, four different men -- Ron Darling, Tom Paciorek, Ray Knight and Sutton -- have done the color teamed at one time or another with Carpenter and 2005 play-by-play man Mel Proctor.

"Look, if it's the right thing to do one year, I can live with that," Carpenter said, adding that of course he'd love to have a long-term, stabilizing deal for himself and his family. "I'd like to think I've been a professional in all of this. I can look anyone in the eye and say I've gone to the park every day and done my very best, given an honest effort.

"It's what I've always done, and what I did the last two weeks of the season thinking that I wasn't going to come back. I could have been a jerk, but I took the high road. I think Sutton and I have done pretty good television over the last season. Kasten even expressed his gratitude to me when we last talked on Friday."

And Kasten and the Lerners can show more of that well-deserved gratitude quite easily. As the late, great Rex Barney used to say over the Orioles public address system, "give that man a contract." Bob Carpenter earned it.

Your thoughts on the embarrassing Dan Snyder interview were accurate. Influencing the choice of the interviewer is a favorite tactic of those in a position to manage the news. It is also a tacit admission that the principal, Snyder, would wilt if confronted with a tough interviewer. That Comcast allegedly selected Michael independently is disingenuous. Certainly the decision-maker anticipated that the choice would please the Redskins. That said, I am sympathetic to Snyder. It isn't his fault he isn't the Squire. News is what people want to know. Fans and readers want to know about a general manager and about how much longer for Gibbs II? The Redskins deserve a coach who is smart, young and hungry, like the young Gibbs, and certainly not Gregg Williams or Al Saunders. The time management fiascoes at game's end are emblematic of failed management.

Chris Bonner

McLean, Va.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Badgerlen@hotmail.com or Badgerlen@aol.com.