5 months ago
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Jim Bowden was a baseball prodigy. He got his first job in the Majors at 24. He was a General Manager by 31. Everything he touched turned to gold. But three months ago, saddled by a sub-par team and mounting off-the-field scandals, Bowden's tenure with the Nationals and perhaps his entire baseball career came to a dubious and emotional end.
"I cried," Bowden said. "Sure. I didn't hold them back."
They were tears for Jim Bowden, born out of 25 years in baseball. Years that finished not with the championship glory he dreamed of, but with the indignity of a tarnished reputation.
"Nobody ever wants to walk away from their dream job," Bowden said. "So it was a tough day and having to call my kids and tell them what was going to happen was the toughest part."
Although some would argue Bowden's dubious departure from the Nationals was both inevitable and years in the making, his flamboyant personality and bombastic manner made him a lightning rod for both attention and controversy. In 2006, Bowden was arrested for DUI -- he kept his job. But in the last 12 months, two scandals would cause his undoing. The first was the age fraud of Smiley Gonzalez.
"That was devastating," Bowden said.
Gonzalez was a 16-year old prospect out of the Dominican Republic that Bowden signed and paid a remarkable bonus of $1.4 million. There was only one problem: Gonzalez and his Dominican handlers lied about his age and identity. His real name is Carlos Lugo. He wasn't 16, he was 20. Its a fact, which had the Nationals known, would have severely decreased his value.
"Our people in the Dominican didn't find it out. MLB didn't find it out. The government didn't find it out," Bowden explains. "Sure it was embarrassing. Absolutely."
At the same time, Bowden was part of an investigation by the FBI looking into allegations he and other baseball executives had skimmed money from the signing bonuses paid to Dominican prospects.
"There's just no truth to it," Bowden insists. "I don't know where it all comes from."
With both of those scandals originating in the Dominican Republic, some say more diligent oversight by Bowden of the Nationals' operations in that country might have nipped some of the problems in the bud. But Bowden admits in his 5 years with the franchise, he had never once stepped foot on Dominican soil.
"I sent our top executives down there to oversee it and at no time did I ever come back with feedback from them that there were any problems," Bowden explains. "In retrospect, if I had to do it again, would I go down there? Of course I would NOW. But 20-20 hindsight is easy after the fact."
Comments 
