Reaction from Riggleman press conference

Jim Riggleman was introduced -- er, make that re-introduced -- as the Nationals' manager this afternoon. No longer the interim skipper, Riggleman has the job on a full-time basis. Terms of his deal were not disclosed -- in fact, the Nats asked Riggleman and his agent, Burton Rocks, to sign confidentiality agreements promising not to reveal details -- but it is a multi-year contract. Or, as Rocks put it: "Jim's going to be manager of the Washington Nationals for a long time." There's plenty still to be decided, including the coaching staff, which will likely have a couple of new faces. That should be resolved in the next couple of weeks. I'll have a full story in tomorrow's paper, but here are some of the better quotes from everyone in attendance today at the press conference... JIM RIGGLEMANOn becoming manager of his hometown team: "This has been a dream of mine, to land right here. This is the team that I grew up watching, the Washington Senators. To me, it's still the Nationals/Senators, it's all the same. It's Washington baseball. It's the dream of a lifetime to grow up watching a ballclub and then to end up playing or managing for that ballclub. It just couldn't end up better for me." What did you do to try to win over the Nats' players after taking over in July? "Nothing specific. I worked here with Manny, and I really believed in what Manny was doing and saying and trying to get done. For whatever reason, we weren't getting it done. So there wasn't a lot different being said. We got to a point where we were just really struggling, and our record indicated that players have to be receptive to pretty much anything you say. So I think we benefitted from that. No matter what I tried to institute, it was going to have to be received, because what's been going on hasn't been working. And it wasn't because there wasn't effort from the manager and coaches, because I saw that every day and I saw the effort Manny put in. But there was no one specific thing we tried to do. It was just a general feeling of, look, let's just try to keep grinding it out. We've got to grind it out and sooner or later we're going to be rewarded. If you remember, we lost the first five games I managed here. We couldn't give up on the message, though. We kept giving the message that it's going to get better if we keep working. If we stop working, it's just going to get worse and there will be a price to pay for that." MIKE RIZZOOn the decision to hire Riggleman: "We went through a disappointing season in 2009. Halfway through the season, we turned to Jim Riggleman for some stability to right this ship and he did what I thought was a masterful job in very trying circumstances. He gave us a sense of balance not only in the dugout but also in the clubhouse. We went back to the roots of the game, the fundamentals of efficient play with a big focus on pitching and defense and playing the game the right way. I thought that we had a very efficient, talented manager in-house. After the season, we felt it was our duty to the ballclub to the fans of Washington, D.C., to do our due diligence and go look in all venues for a permanent field manager. We did an extensive search and came back to the realization that the best guy for the job we had in-house in Jim Riggleman." On not choosing Bobby Valentine: "Bobby Valentine was extremely impressive, very communicative, very baseball knowledgable, extremely bright person in general and he's got great baseball acumen. ... He was a very attractive candidate. It's just I felt Jim was the right guy for the job." When did you start to think of Riggleman seriously as the long-term answer? "When we made the change [at the All-Star break], he was the very logical candidate to be the interim manager. I was part of bringing him in here as the bench coach of the club, so we did our research on Jim long before I made him the interim manager. You can know about people, and hear what you hear about people, but watching him work on a day-to-day basis, I knew we had something here that could be a long-term answer for where we're trying to be." JOHN LANNANWhat did Riggleman do this last season that really impressed you? "He stuck with the fundamentals of the game. We were struggling with defense and we worked on defense. The bullpen was kind of in shambles and he put everybody in roles, I think. I think he specified who was going to do what and he put it up on the board. He was fresh. I think that really helped out, too. The [bullpen] ERA dropped a little bit, too, when he came in. I really was impressed with the way he runs a tight ship. I think it’s going to pay off." Was it quick how everyone in the clubhouse gravitated towards Riggleman? "Yeah, we had that workout -- I forget when it was -- but he basically talked for a while. He sat down the pitchers and the catchers and everybody and you kind of got that sense that it was a change of attitude. Those meetings after every game they helped out to. So we still ran into some cold spots. But you could just definitely tell that the addition of Jim and Nyjer and those guys they really stepped up a little bit."