In this July 31, 2009, photo, Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman stands in the dugout during... 
(AP)
Jim Riggleman opened his first news conference in 10 years as a full-fledged, full-time, full-titled major league manager — no "interim" tag to be found — by saying he didn't want to list the people he needs to thank, lest he forget someone.
And then, not surprisingly, the man who will manage the Washington Nationals in 2010 proceeded to list those people: his family; the team's owners; president Stan Kasten, GM Mike Rizzo and their staffs; current players; players he worked with in the minors; Whitey Herzog, who brought Riggleman to the majors as a coach years ago.
On and on. Clearly, Riggleman is grateful to be a skipper in the majors once again.
"My feeling was, if there was some divine intervention that came upon me that said, 'You will never manage again,' then I would have got out" of baseball, Riggleman said Thursday, when the Nationals officially announced he would remain in their dugout. "I wanted to stay in the game, because I still wanted to manage. So if I would have strongly doubted it would ever happen, I would not have continued. And you had to wonder as the years went by."
Neither the Nationals nor Riggleman's agent — who said he had to sign a nondisclosure agreement — would say anything about the terms of the deal.
Still, next season will mark his first since 1999 with a managing job in spring training. That was his final year with the Chicago Cubs, one of three other clubs he's managed.
"Now he's got his whole opportunity to kind of start from Day 1 and be like, 'OK, this is how it's going to be,'" Nationals pitcher John Lannan said.
Riggleman was promoted from bench coach to interim manager midway through last season, replacing the fired Manny Acta in July. The Nationals were 26-61 (a .299 winning percentage) at the time and went 33-42 (.440) under Riggleman. While they finished with a majors-worst record of 59-103, there was a sense that his pregame fielding drills and postgame clubhouse talks were helping the young players on a rebuilding team.
