Here is a sample of Dibble’s comments on Strasburg:” “You can’t have the cavalry come in and save your butt every time you feel a little stiff shoulder, sore elbow.” Everyone by now has seen the extended version. Remember all of this was said before anyone knew that Strasburg was going to have Tommy John surgery.

I have made it very clear that I was a Dibble fan and his remarks about Strasburg were stupid and crossed the line but were they cause for his firing?

Well the Nationals felt that they were and in the end that is ALL that really matters.

The team thought they wanted edgy and that is what Dibble gave them but like so many other teams and networks when their outspoken broadcasters actually are outspoken they seem stunned and surprised dropping them as soon as they can.

Dibble had his group of fans and also a vocal group of detractors – it comes with the territory when your edgy.

The Nationals front office, the Lerner family and team president Stan Kasten have the right to hire and fire whomever they like but the next color analyst is most likely not going to be edgy.

As for those who have written about both Dibble and Knight using words like we, us and our team perhaps you simply do not grasp the concept of local sports broadcasting. They are entertaining, well produced and slickly done but the goal is the same to get fans to go to the games or at least make sure they watch them on TV.

The team’s broadcast crew in this case Carpenter and Dibble (now Ray Knight) are paid to bring people to the ball park, they are salesmen who are often asked to meet with season ticket holders, have dinner with sponsors and do anything and everything from playing golf to having advertisers drop by the booth to close add deals or meet cable executives.

Team broadcasters have to be as passionate about their team as the fans are, to know them and to like them. They have to be able to praise them when they do well and to get on them when they screw up.

That is the business and it does not matter what team you work for the template is the same since beer companies started sponsoring games in the early days. Men like Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Ernie Harwell, Bob Prince, Red Barber and Chuck Thompson all wrote in their biographies about selling beer and getting the fannies in the seats as major parts of their jobs and nothing has changed today.   

So where do the Nationals go from here?

First of all by all means keep Carpenter he has been great working now with his fourth partner.

For the time being Carpenter and Knight will go forth on a week to week basis perhaps closing out the year.

As for who might replace Dibble on the MASN team there will be plenty of possibilities some names that come to mind are ESPN analysts Orel Hershiser and Rick Sutcliffe both could be good targets or perhaps they might land rising star John Smoltz who is a Kasten favorite. One other possibility is former Expo Garry Carter who was in town recently he was a quality broadcaster before moving to coaching college baseball.

One thing for certain is that there will be plenty of applicants for the job – but less edgy.