time and we will go back and check our emphasis would not just be young players with young pitchers and the reason for that is it's been true for a century and have they played baseball. it's always been about the pictures and is always going to be about your pitchers. it's the hardest thing to get and after you do that everything gets much easier so we spent all of our time and attention on finding young pitchers. i have a very firm belief of the ways to acquire talent the least efficient is the first scout and develop on your own, second you try to acquire through trade and then finally when you are in the position to take advantage of the jump then you go after the free agencies a course that has much closer than you would think by just looking i also feel strongly and i think i have about 150 years of evidence to

back me up you can't buy a pitching staff, you can't buy rotation. you have to grow them. you can buy one pitcher but you can't buy a rotation and so that was our challenge when we got here. how do we develop a young staff. we hired a lot more skills, the best player development people that we could and i knew it was going to take time. when i went through this in atlanta i told you the story before. when i went through this in atlanta i explained how i thought we had to go forward to producing a good team. i told them for the next three or four years on the talk shows and in the newspaper this is before there was internet back in the good old days, i said while we are growing the next three or four years every night i'm going to be the village idiot and for those of you keeping score at home i'm currently in my village idiot phase in washington. that's where we are as we

develop until we see the record on the field it's easy to be critical. it's easy to be impatient. i totally understand that but i think those of you who aren't limited to just looking at the standings who are really looking up the pieces of a franchise and the things you need to be successful can start to see with those of us on the inside have long suspected and now we are seeing. we now have today a rotation. four of them are rookies, three of them are 22. this is what we set out to do three years ago and you can't snap your fingers and make it happen overnight. it takes time to develop, scout, and then develop kids and get them ready for the major leagues but you can start to see the five kids here today and between that crop and the crop that is right behind them in syracuse and then the dustin 15, 20 names you don't know behind them, we

are building a franchise that is defined by young pitchers coming forward. i had a great conversation yesterday with a picture you probably know named john smoltz, played for me once upon a time. and he and i went through this and we had great fun talking about this because i reminded him which he didn't have to be reminded of what his record was at the age of 21. and i also know the following statistics. three pretty good pitchers, glavin, mattocks, smolts that we had an atlanta, three pretty good pictures all three go into the hall of fame. when they were 21 and 22 those three pictures in the major leagues had a record of 19, 46. three pretty good pitchers and i'm not comparing anyone we have today to any of them. that's not my point. my point is even the best pitchers have to go through.

they need their 20, 30, 40 starts before it kicks in and learn how to maximize the talent so that is what we are going for now with 22-year-olds. it's going to take time. we've been encouraged by what we seen so far but there will be ups and downs

the hitter who hit the home run for the only one of the night and the picture standing on the mount closing out the game all three of them were scouted by us, drafted and signed by us. that's the kind of franchise we are trying to build and set out to build and we are building so yes i know what our record is today and believe me it's more

frustrating to me than any hundred fans could possibly feel and i still don't sleep after losses because it's just how why am. but every night especially the last month or so i go home encouraged by another quality start or buy stuff i see that is going to develop into being a big-time starter. we set out this off-season knowing that we had nonstarters coming. we set out this off season to work on offense. i thought we did a good job of that and our owners stepped up as they always did when the time was right. there were two left-handed bats that would fill the need we had for the middle of the left-handed bat. lark and adam, we tried to get both of them we only needed one and we got one and i'm very happy. i think you've seen the impact the big left-handed bat has made and how were lined up and so i think we have our offense and please or about to fall into place. i do think our work rotation is

close to coming together in a long term permanent successful way. now, that leaves the bullpen which had an almost historic inclusion in april, that kind of role in our season. i think it settled down now quite a bit but there is no question once we get our rotation and once our offense and settles and we will need to make sure we have a bullpen that can get these kids who have given seven good innings. so that's the thing we have to do. either this season or the next off-season and of course like any championship team we have to get the best defense we can. it's instructive i think to me back in '91 when the braves had their first championship here, the first world series the only change made from 90 which was a last-place team to 91, which was a world series team was we signed three peace is -- three free agents but pieces, not three big agents but three

defensive players. we signed sade and carry pendleton, three defensive players and all of a sudden our pitching was a heckuva lot better. it's amazing how that works. we understand that connection. we are aware of that and we are on the lookout for those final pieces once we get the rotation put in place and i think it's happening that's why i'm excited as i am about the future and how close we are. that's my observation but i tell you what encourages me or just in the last two weeks our last pitching coach steve mcafee was once a part in 1980 of a phenomenon like this, five great young starters who want to have great success in oakland. he was once one of those kids and he says to me sitting in the dugout during one of our innumerable rain delays this year, he says stan, this is very exciting to watch. this is exactly what we went through an oakland.

this is really happening. and two days later i was on the phone with bobby cox, the great hall of fame manager in atlanta who unsolicited said the same thing. he knew all about or other guys from personal experience and he then watched ross yy where that might or the night before and called to say stan, it's really happening. so we have people like that who feel that way. and the last most recent guy who said that to me was just yesterday starting tonight for the boston red sox, john smoltz, who again went through this himself. was one of those people himself. he sees we are so much closer than our standings today would suggest and that is what gives me even more encouragement. i feel pretty good about the way things are going myself but to hear people i really respect like that see the same things i do. again, it makes me more encouraged than i could be just standing on my own. so that's where i think the team

is going and how far we've progressed. now let me talk about the customer experience because this is something i'm very proud of as well. you remember excuse me, three years ago i got here we were playing at rfk which was all rfk and many of you loved it for your own emotional ties to it, but it clearly wasn't what modern customers today have come to want or expect and so the process was already in place to design and build this great new stadium and i have to tell you as i travel around the country to all the new stadiums our stadium is as fine a stadium as there is anywhere in baseball. it's more beautiful than virtually any stadium i can think of. the ease of access, the sites are spectacular and more and more people recognize that irrespective of how that might's score is you're going to have a good time when you come to a ball game assuming it's not

raining that night. you know, and for about one-third of the game so far this year it's been raining. i understand that's going to put a little bit of a damper, plan intended, all our might but there is no finer way to spend an evening than at the ballpark and that is especially so at national park. i understand as i said in the past when i saw people a ticket it's not just their money asking for. it's the four hours of their time and so we have to be prepared and i think we are to make sure all of the time is easy and convenient and safe and clean and entertaining. and yes most important among those things affordable. baseball has always been and remains the most affordable of all sporting entertainment. we are proud of that. we are proud to have $5 tickets for every game all year including the big games. we are very proud we have thousands of $10 tickets because

we do want to remain accessible to the widest possible spectrum of the fans. you know about the stadium. last year in the first year it was glorious. we have continued to work on the game presentation and the things you see on the board and the music you hear you may not love all of it but we work very hard on the next and on the four month. we have staff that spend all their time trying to work on what goes on that board and in what sequence and again as i travel around the country and look at other games our game presentation i think is of their with any. our magnificent screen and el eda boards matches any stadium in baseball and the sequencing, the way we do things i think is as good as you can get in terms of game presentation. we have this silly president's race that you all know about, which still is -- [applause] i can't explain exactly why. [laughter] but it's still the single most popular thing we do.

people are now starting to know the fora where they know what we do in a mile of the fourth inning with the president's race. they know every night in the middle of the third we are going to salute the returning officers and soldiers coming back from various fronts. they know in the seventh inning we are going to have god bless america and other songs so at washers can get up and dance, so we have a program that makes you have a great time no matter, as i said, with the score is. we also spend an inordinate amount of time and money on the friendliness program of our ushers, and i can tell you -- i get complaints about many things. the thing i get the fewest complaints about is the ushers. i would say 99.9% of the comments i get are that we have the friendly as ushers anyone has ever seen. that's not an accident it's something we work hard as we identify people to higher and we were carter training them.

i'm very proud of the ushers we have. food, i will tell you this. sastre we opened up the ball park with a lot more in terms of alternatives, a lot more variety, much better quality than we were able to provide at rfk and yet still it wasn't good enough for us. it wasn't good enough for me were the lerner family. we needed to do better and so this year we've replaced our concession with the company of chicago who is renowned across the world for doing good things. and again this year we've increased and expanded and improved food offerings both in quality and in variety. we have as many different cool things. we have budget items, health items and the good basics as many hot dogs as you could imagine. we have it all at the park. one thing that continues to disappoint me frankly we are still not fast enough or smart enough or good enough and our transactions across the counter.

i think we are good, we've gotten better since last year. we have many excellent and police but to many of them are not yet excellent and that is what we are working on. we are still searching for the exact right crowd. we work very hard on who we higher. it's a tricky process. we have replaced a lot of them already this year because we have to get to the makes where all of our people are excellent. we are not there yet apply assure you it is our goal and we are going to keep working on that. so that's a little about the game and customer experience. i hope you were all having a good night any time you're coming to the ballpark. i thought i now it would be better in terms of our neighborhood and the economy which has hit all else and so many ways has certainly hit the business of going out to the nets' game. the development we thought we would see by now hasn't happened yet. we all know its going to happen. but it's been delayed for a

couple years and when that happens that is going to make the evening experience of coming to the ball game even better than it is now. and the last thing i want to talk about is the most important in many ways and the things that is least talked about so i want to spend time today. i even brought some paper and if you know anything about me, i never read. i didn't know what i would talk about when i got up here. i like to talk extemporaneously but i wanted to bring material to talk about because i didn't want to leave anything out and this is the community relations effort. the things we do in our city for our neighbors, for the citizens not just of the city but also of maryland and virginia, all the fans and people we can reach out to. of course we do, the nationals, do a superb job of reaching out across the many ways we can. we do literally hundreds of programs over the course of a year to reach out mostly to d.c.

but again also in maryland, also in virginia. in so many ways and most of you never hear about or read about it because there isn't a lot of media interest yet they are touching the lives of kids, seniors, fans and non-fans throughout algeria. first let me talk about the business side. we have about 1,000 people a night working the game between ushers and ticket takers and food people. two-thirds of our people are d.c. residents. to third are hired from d.c. and we are proud of that. we have held a number of job fares typically within six blocks of the ball park we are trying as hard as we can to higher right from the neighbor. that is a real important thing and we've been doing it and succeeded. as i said we need to continue to refine the mix of employees that we work very hard at bringing in people who are citizens of the district because we think that is a very good thing.

in terms of economics, it's worked out great. the bonds are being more than paid off with revenues that have been brought in by the team and the tickets and all that. so on the business side things have been moving along just great and we are very proud for our neighborhood and our community. on the charitable full-length philanthropic side i want to talk about. let's start with the dream foundation which was so much good work again most of you don't know about yet. i want to read a few things we do. let's start with the three big goals, the three big programs

children's cancer foundation, covenant house, d.c. rbi. everybody wins program, facilitating leadership and youth, hispanic scholarship fund, living classrooms foundation, the peace foundation, the joslyn diabetes center, rebuilding together program, thurgood marshall academy and the tyler elementary school partnership project. that is just a partial list of the grants our foundation have given out in the last year or two. in addition to that, the stuff we do with our players, with our coaches and manager in the neighborhood is extremely important. this year alone we are going to give out between 50 and 60,000 tickets to the d.c. kids. we are going to hold six free

clinics, baseball and softball, boys and girls at the ballpark. we have six different drives over the course of the year raising money for different things and every month we choose another cause to get behind. this is june so we are working with the american cancer as society and leukemia and i can go on. as i said we literally do hundreds of programs. my favorite is a new one this year we tried to kick it off. we've really been able to ramp up and that's this year's d.c. high school initiative. one of the only things i've been able to get the mayor and city council to agree on. we all love the d.c. high school initiative and under this program every d.c. public high school their baseball team is invited to come and spend the day having a full baseball team practice at our ek spends at national park. it's a great thrill for the kids and a great motivator for these

kids and an addition each d.c. public high school for every child in that school baseball player or not, every child will get a ticket to a game on that high schools day at the ballpark. thousands of tickets, thousands of kids come to the national park that would have no other way to do this except this exciting program we are doing at our expense. we are happy to do it. i hope it's building future fans and increasing morale and i hope it's helping our basic themes of helping kids, working in on health initiatives and baseball and softball initiatives. we found ways to combine all of these things in a charitable, friendly community relations way. now this is going to be a lot more exciting and probably more newsworthy when the record of the team gets better. i understand how that works. everything feels better when the team on the field gets better. but on till then we are not when to stop. we are going to continue our

work in the neighborhoods with our community keeping customers happy having the best experience they can have the ball park so that when this team is not very far now from being not just competitive but contended, once they are here everything else will be in place and by looking forward to that day because again i as they invented no new insults. i've been called everything before and so i'm being called those things again. believe me nichm i have to tell this to people in the front office. i tell this to our owners and staff members. interesting thing that i remember from 2004, espn did a review of all franchises in sports. about 121i think in the four

major sports. and they had many categories of rankings and one category was owners. how good are the owners in that sport? and the number three over that year of the 121 franchises was the owner of the detroit red wing. number three, pretty darn good and darn good older. alas number 115 out of 121 was the owner of the then lonely detroit tigers. what's fascinating to me is those are the same guy. mike kawlija led both teams. [laughter] which should be a lesson that i assure you i've kept in mind because it does say about the job we are in. i'm going to turn over to people who want to ask questions. i will be mindful that again and didn't know new insults but if anybody wants to try i'm willing to take your best shot. i'm looking forward to anything you scott. [applause]

>> what are the magic ingredients used by the boston red sox and new york and yankees that put them to the top every year? is mauney one of the elements? >> i can talk about this for hours. let me sum up my feeling on this. what do i have, have until 2:00, right? i will tell you from doing this in many sports over many years i have a very strong belief that smart always beats rich. if you're smart. and many examples of this. but when you're smart and rich that is a tough combination. both of those franchises or extremely smart as well as being extremely rich and they are able to parlay that into continuous success. the yankees had a good streak going. last year they didn't make the pro season the first time in 13 years. it was a good streak it wasn't like another team accomplished but it was a good streak and i give them a lot of credit.

[laughter] >> if my recollection is correct and this is not my recollection the mets ascendency took seven years, 62 to 69. where are the nationals now on that time line? >> well, i wish i could give you a year of course in baseball as in all sports everything is so dependent on just the development of players but also injuries and not just your injuries but competitors injuries. as i said during my remarks i firmly believe once we get a consistent, stable, much work, ready to go rotation of pitchers anything is possible immediately. once you get that you don't have to wait two years or five years, then you're ready to go and only have to have missing piece is filled in and i assure you both i and all of my letters are able to fill in missing pieces as soon as the established that base. >> while doing president of the atlanta braves, you put together one of the greatest pitching staffs in history consisting of

future hall of famers fred mattocks, tom, john smoltz, and others. i guess he's not in my particular hall of fame and you often stated putting together a strong starting rotation is the key to the long term success of the ball club yet on your current roster the seven highest-paid players are not pictures. for example, you gave 20 million-dollar contract to outfielder album done an outfielder who has led the league in strikeouts three times and is putting it nicely a defensive liability. are you going against the blueprint that made the braves the team of the 90's? >> no, i'm following exactly that blueprint and of so many other teams. by the way, we are not the only team pinning our hopes on succeeding on the backs of a young pitcher. oakland is doing a great job of that. cincinnati's been a good job, toronto is doing a good job and let me say soon now you're also going to see baltimore has done

a good job of exactly that. but in baseball, call it fair or unfair, your yonder players don't make much money. they are not eligible for salary arbitration until the fourth year in the majors so if you're building through yong pitchers you may have your best players as your most affordable so i think we are exactly on track doing it as we should. >> as president of the washington nationals how much blame to your shoulder for the poor performance of the team? >> i shoulder all of it as i said, you know, i will take that responsibility because until we get it right it's not right and i've got to keep working until we do. but as i said right now line the village idiot. i aware that not proudly but with resignation. i get that because we are in the face. there are no shortcuts with pitcher. you can't buy a pitcher rotation, you have to develop

them. we've done an excellent job. they are edna fi is making the impact of the major leagues. another year or two and i think they will stop calling me back names. [laughter] >> to hear the "washington post" tells the owners of the nationals are happy to make money with a mediocre product and will spend money needed to build a winner. what's your response? >> i think that's unfair. it's a common thing for people who don't look behind the real events happening or they are looking for a cheap headline. there was a little editorial there. [laughter] i think the truth is the law was put this past off-season when we did make again we identified the need that could be satisfied by the free agent acquisition and we went very hard at least in two cases to do that. we also added a free agent in the spring once we identified his need in the bullpen. the most important to remember is