Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman, who had just managed the team back to 1 game over the .500 mark, surprisingly quit on the team over what he deemed was a lack of respect in (the team's/General Manager's) not agreeing to hold talks about a contract extension/pick-up of the option on his existing contract.

Original news announcements about the issue made it seem that he quit because he wasn't offered an extension.  News conference footage, straight from the man's mouth, clarify and note that what he was asking for was a conversation about the contract, not a contract extension at this point.  The GM/team instead declined to carry on a conversation about the contract or extension so Riggleman felt he had no choice but to resign and walk away from the club.

I'm not necessarily a Riggleman fan.  I think he's an "OK" manager, but not necessarily the guy that can win in the long run.  I'd much rather the Nationals would have hired Buck Showalter or someone similar, but I do give Riggleman credit for getting the team back to a winning record.

I understand what the team was doing too, but this is also a team that has yet to prove anything to the fans.  They've let their stars walk and they've failed to attract many stars with any of their contract offers.  They're seen within the sport as being wannabe's with cheap ownership that isn't serious about fielding a winning team.  They may wind up losing badly in the eyes of players over what happened here, or they may wind up somehow being able to attract a big name manager later that can help them attract the stars that had been refusing to even consider coming to the team.  Only time will tell.