Uh oh

Les Carpenter's game article contains some ominous signs of a clubhouse that is coming apart at the seams.

Carpenter's questions to John Patterson about the moment when Patterson threw his glove into the air after the second-base umpire missed a call elicited this:

"It was a combination of everything," he said. "When you're making pitches and all the balls are finding holes, and when you go through everything else that's going on around here, you saw frustration tonight."

Which is why he tossed his red glove into the air. And why [third-base umpire Tim] McClelland came running over from third base, jabbing a finger in Patterson's face and the pitcher looked so blankly at the umpire in return.

"I shouldn't have done it," he said before offering a string of apologies -- to his teammates, the umpires, the fans.

But he added, "I was frustrated."

When asked what he meant by "everything else that's going on around here," he shook his head. "Don't get into that," he said.

Still, it seems obvious that the mood has changed significantly around the Nationals' clubhouse these days. The pregame music went last week in Atlanta, turning the happy room into an afternoon tomb. But the smiles left this team long before that. The joy that seemed to bounce off the walls with the winning in May and June, was replaced with somber mumbles and shuffled steps in July and August.

We've heard a lot about problems in the clubhouse, but there clearly are important aspects of this story we haven't heard. Patterson's comments hint at serious issues that have to be addressed. It doesn't make sense to speculate on what those issues are, but management needs to resolve them quickly.

The problem is that the Nationals don't have a real management team. It's not clear that Tony Tavares, Jim Bowden, and Frank Robinson will be back next year, or in what direction the new owners will take the team. Until the ownership issue is resolved, the Nationals will be plagued by uncertainty and inaction, which is precisely what kept them from making significant trades this season. It's a bad situation, and Major League Baseball must carry much of the blame for its failure to choose an owner before the season and for waiting until the end of the season to do so.

Still, through it all players like Patterson have endured and remained optimistic:

"We can make this a miserable last three weeks of the year or we can salvage it and make it a great season," Patterson said.

It sure would be nice to see MLB finally do something right and select an owner this week so the team can get on with its future.