With MLB, The Code Is Clear

Bob DuPuy, COO of Major League Baseball, could have much of Washington smiling if baseball moves the Expos to Washington, as it seems likely will be the case. (Ron Kuenstler -- AP)

Baseball communicates in code. If you don't know the tribal customs, it's all mysterious. If you do, it's usually clear. On Thursday in Milwaukee, nothing official happened. That's the news, but in code. No news means good news for Washington.

To prevent the Expos from coming to Washington, Peter Angelos had to make something spectacular happen in Bud Selig's office on Thursday. This was his one desperate chance to plead his woefully weak case to the game's Executive Council. He had to do something loud or transformative. Something so legally scary or rhetorically brilliant that the sport would stop in its tracks and, after an excruciating, exhaustive multi-year march toward Washington, reverse its course of action completely.

Instead, nothing happened in Milwaukee. No explosion. Angelos shot blanks. Otherwise, baseball would be in internal turmoil now. Bud's apple cart would be upset. Jerry Reinsdorf would be breathing fire. The game's grapevine would be on fire.

Now, all is quiet. Have a nice weekend. See you next week when, pick a day, baseball chooses Washington for the Expos.

That is, if the game even waits that long. According to one source, D.C. officials may receive the confirmation that they desperately want to hear this morning, not long after you read this column. Never has a "we haven't decided yet" from baseball been received with such near euphoria by those on the other end of the drama.

"My grandmother told me, 'Listen to the words in the room. But it's more important to pay attention to the music in the room,' " said Mark Tuohey, head of the Washington Sports Commission. "We love the sound of the music we're hearing.

"The dispositive discussions have now been made to the Executive Council by the relocation committee. Angelos has spoken and it's obvious he has no legal or factual basis for a claim. Now the commissioner has every right to take the time he wants to make a decision. We will wait patiently. But we need to file legislation by next Friday."

Don't underestimate the importance of yesterday's silence to the District. After months of inspiring fear and trembling, Angelos appears not to have a battle plan. After all his bluster, his bluff was called. It looks like he's holding a busted flush.

Meantime, the game's most powerful owners heard the story that Washington has been trying to get across to them for many years. But this time, the pitch was delivered by many of the most respected people inside the sport, not by Washington's ambassadors. All the pertinent details of an excellent $400 million stadium proposal were dropped in the owners' laps. Reinsdorf, the White Sox owner and the game's best student of ballpark deals, did the deepest spade work and found the deal compelling.

After the Executive Council meeting, president Bob DuPuy stepped before the mikes and -- in baseball code -- made three key points which were exactly what Washington's key players wanted to hear.

"The commissioner is CEO of the industry and he has the power to close a deal," said DuPuy. That means Bud has the support of his owners to do whatever he thinks is best for baseball. The noses are counted. Angelos can forget rounding up support from other owners who might, someday, want his vote to help defend their territory. It's all in Bud's hands now.

Since Selig's handpicked relocation committee, including his daughter, his lawyer and his best baseball ally, think that Washington is best for baseball, how on earth can Bud disagree with them, show them up and waste their two years of effort? What kind of commissioner would, out of friendship for Angelos, stand against the dispassionate analysis of his top committee? It would make a travesty of baseball's respect for proper process. And it might attract attention to that antitrust exemption, too.

Next, DuPuy added, that "we could end up with another [Executive Council] meeting, but it will more likely be [ended by] a conference call." Finally, he said: "We're all running out of time [for a decision]. Everybody's on the same time schedule."

Upon hearing DuPuy's comments, one member of the Washington Baseball Club (a potential ownership group) was almost jubilant. "If DuPuy says the commissioner can close a deal unilaterally, do it fast and wrap it up with just a conference call, that means just one thing to me: It's over. Washington has won," said Paul Wolfe, a Williams and Connolly lawyer.