For better or worse

So the Washington Nationals finally have honest-to-goodness owners of their own. But what kind?

Only time will tell — lots of time.

It is risky to make hasty judgments, pro or con, about Theodore Lerner and Stan Kasten, who now will run the Nationals. History shows it’s easy to misread the intentions of owners who smile for the TV cameras and vow that their only desire is to serve local humanity and put a winner on the field.

For example …

When George Steinbrenner became managing general partner of the New York Yankees in 1973 — heading a group that purchased the club from CBS for $10 million — he was viewed as a mild-mannered shipbuilder from Cleveland who wouldn’t make waves.

And when Peter Angelos bought the Baltimore Orioles from Eli Jacobs in 1993, he was widely hailed in Charm City and environs for restoring local ownership that would have only the interests of fans at heart.

In Washington, we have experienced, for better or worse, all sorts of team leaders.

• Clark Griffith: benevolent, tightfisted.

• Calvin Griffith: turncoat, hypocrite.

• Bob Short: carpetbagger, political hack.

• George Preston Marshall: mercurial, bigoted.

• Jack Kent Cooke: imperious, demanding.

• Dan Snyder: inconsiderate, greedy.

• Abe Pollin: kindly, patient (except toward Michael Jordan).

On baseball fronts hereabouts, the Griffiths and Short are the names to remember. None of the others lasted long enough to have an impact, though Gen. Elwood Quesada — an FAA administrator who knew nothing about baseball — might have wrecked the national pastime in D.C. a decade before Short if he hadn’t bailed out as boss of the expansion Senators after just three years.

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