A NATIONAL BLUNDER: SELIG FAILS MINORITY OWNERS.

Byline: MATT MCHALE BASEBALL

It was a positive step by major league baseball to build a youth academy in Compton to reestablish minority participation in the grand old game.

It would have been far better to include them in the process when commissioner Bud Selig was selecting new ownership of the Washington Nationals.

Although everyone was smiling Thursday when the announcement came D.C. real estate mogul Theodore N. Lerner was the new owner, the anguish of the 17-month selection process will not soon pass.

Selig missed a great opportunity to prove he is serious about reconnecting with a lost generation of African-American fans and creating a community sense of ownership for the future.

Instead, there were accusations that Lerner brought blacks into the mix late only to put his group over the top.

``Renting some blacks, having some tokens, let's get that off the table,'' D.C. mayoral candidate Vincent Orange told the New York Times last week.

If you are left thinking this is just politics or somebody else's problem, think again. NFL owners are expected to make a decision on L.A.'s bid for a football team. When that is finally finished, the ownership groups will start lining up.

Minority representation will be a huge part of the debate. Washington D.C. is an extremely diverse city. LosAngeles is off the charts. Everyone wants a guarantee their people will do more than sell beer.

All nine potential suitors in the Washington bidding were prepared to pay the $450 million asking price, which by the way represents almost four times what Major League Baseball paid when it bought the franchise four years ago.

Among the groups considered, one was headed by Jeff Smulyan, former owner of the Seattle Mariners who attempted to buy the Dodgers several years ago.

Another was run by Fred Malek and Jeffrey Zients, general partners of the Washington Baseball Club, an organization that spent seven years and millions of dollars attempting to relocate the team from Montreal.

It received the endorsement of former mayor Marion Barry, whose national reputation was soiled by drug problems but whose impact on the local community remains strong.

Lerner has some heavy hitters in his camp, including CBS broadcaster James Brown and the owner of the city's largest black-owned bank.

Malek had the backing of former secretary of state Colin Powell and former presidential advisor Vernon Jordan.

But Lerner kept the names of his minority investors secret. Even after the victory, the amount of money they kicked in to the effort has not been revealed.

Silent partners are nothing new in business. But with the perception that Selig bullied the city on many concessions, including a $600million stadium, being a little more forthcoming would have gone a long way.

The baseball message sent by 80-year-old Lerner, whose childhood memories include watching Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig at old Griffith Stadium, is that he will be prudent in running the Nationals.

He hired former Atlanta executive Stan Kasten as club president and will use the Braves as their model.

Kasten's teams averaged 98 losses in his first three seasons as president, but the Braves have since won 14 consecutive division titles.

The problem is the Nats right now are an awful team, and not just because they entered the weekend 9-19.

Gone is an amazing first-year buzz that made rundown RFK Stadium the hippest spot in town.

Paid attendance this year is below 20,000. And because of a dispute with Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, most games are not available on television.

There is uncertainty over the future of manager Frank Robinson and GM Jim Bowden. Robinson, a Hall of Famer who recently won his 1,000th career game, said he would consider taking a ``significant'' job inside the organization.

It is vital the fan base hear that Robinson is given such assurances. But from an on-field perspective, it is distracting during the middle of the season. All of this is.

The Nats' payroll is $63 million. Lerner says he wants to rebuild his tattered farm system and grow from within. Translated: He doesn't want to get into any high-priced, free-agent bidding.

There certainly is nothing wrong with that posture, unless you have inherited an impressionable/ impatient fan base that is picking up the tab on a half-billion dollar stadium not expected to open until 2008.

Washington is expected to be one of the cities to get a youth baseball academy if the one is Compton is a success. That would be one part of the building process.

A bigger one could have happened this past week.

Bud Selig helped Ted Lerner buy the Washington Nationals. But he needed to do a lot more.

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 7 boxes

Photo:

(1) New Nationals owner Theodore N. Lerner, left, shakes hands with former Washington Mayor Marion Barry.

Haraz N. Ghanbari/Associated Press

(2) Some say commissioner Bud Selig should have taken a harder look at minority ownership for the Nationals.

Caleb Jones/Associated Press

Box:

(1) DAILY NEWS/CBS 2/KCAL 9 SPORTS CENTRAL POWER RANKINGS

- Matt McHale

(2) THEY SAID IT

(3) WHO'S HOT

(4) WHO'S COLD

(5) ROOKIE WATCH

(6) NOTES

(7) SERIES OF THE WEEK