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.