The outcome was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but it’s still one more step toward getting the Nationals on the right track. Today in New York, baseball’s team owners unanimously approved the Lerner group’s purchase of the Nats for the sticker price of $450 million, according to the Post.

Lerner won’t officially get the reins of the team until June, when he’ll also be replacing team president Tony Tavares with new hope and ownership partner Stan Kasten. The new owners have said repeatedly that they won’t be making drastic Steinbrennian moves, opting instead to build the team slowly and improve the farm system, but our money is on a swift parting with partying GM Jim Bowden and some rapid bargaining away of high-performing star players for prospects and lots of them.

The Post also reports that there’s the potential for a “Grand Reopening” event of some sort on July 21st at RFK, along with modest improvements to the stadium itself (probably better concessions). That will all be fine with us, but really we’re still just excited to be getting out from under the thumb of MLB’s ruinous ownership. Let a thousand pennants bloom.