We don’t yet know whether Tuesday represented the public unveiling of the Mike DeBartolo era for the Washington Nationals, because there’s no guarantee anyone can carry out a vision when the word “interim” precedes your title and three or four months don’t constitute an “era.

If the Lerner family conducts a serious search and decides Mike DeBartolo is the best guy, the fans will accept that. However, if they just hand DeBartolo the job, it will be a tougher sell. It would be yet another example of the Lerner family being lazy and taking the easy way out.

"The fans are frustrated. We're all frustrated," DeBartolo said. "We have a lot of interesting, exciting young pieces to build on."