That's certainly how it reads.
As Selig deliberates, or, more likely, gives Angelos a few days to chill out and accept a financial settlement for the good of the game, it's obvious that the commissioner has no logical course except to finish what he's started.
Does anybody think that, in the wake of a firm preference by his relocation committee, that Bud favors Norfolk or Mexico?
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)
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| _____ Baseball Returns to D.C. _____
• Bud Selig announces that the troubled Montreal Expos will move to Washington, returning baseball to the nation's capital for the 2005 season.
• While the Expos aren't very good now, they have loads of potential.
• News Graphic: Time to settle down
• Q&A on the new team
• Graphic: Meet your Expos (PDF).
• Survey: What should we call D.C.'s new team? | Discuss.
• After having RFK to itself for eight years, D.C. United will share.
• Details sketchy on how regional sports network would operate.
• There was a time when the Expos were the envy of all of baseball.
• News Graphic: Coming full circle.
• D.C. region has suffered through an endless number of close calls.
• City officials, led by Mayor Anthony A. Williams, gleefully celebrate the end of a generation of frustration.
• District's offer described as very generous.
• News Graphic: Stadium strategy
• A majority of the D.C. Council supports the mayor's stadium plan.
• When the hoopla dies down, will D.C. still have baseball fever?
• In Virginia, some blame Gov. Warner for failure to lure Expos.
• More than 50 years ago, it was Baltimore that needed D.C.'s help.
• Orioles management had little to say Wednesday about the news.
• Expos final home game is marred by unruly fan behavior.
_____ Post Columnists _____
• Thomas Boswell: We are finally getting exactly what we wished for.
• Sally Jenkins: D.C. is getting a bad team and a potential financial mess.
• Michael Wilbon: There are only four choices for the name of the new club.
• Mike Wise: Talk to the old Nats, you realize baseball never left.
• George Solomon: Finally, Shirley Povich is looking down and smiling.
• Marc Fisher: Baseball's challenge is to connect with the black kids.
_____ Multimedia _____
• Video: D.C. residents have mixed feelings about the relocation.
• Video: D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams makes the announcement.
• Video: In 2003, a D.C. official details improvements to RFK.
• Video: The Post's Garcia-Ruiz on what still needs to be done at RFK.
• Audio: Ex-Senators announcer Ron Menchine on the proposed move.
• Audio: Ex-announcer Bob Wolf says D.C. team, Orioles can thrive.
_____ Live Online _____
• Post's Tom Heath was online Thursday. Read the transcript.
• The Post's J.J. McCoy took questions before Wednesday's announcement. Read the transcript.
_____ On Our Site _____
• The District has been without major league baseball for more than 30 years. Look back at a visual history of the Washington Senators.
• Eighty years ago, the Senators won their only world championship.
• What's your opinion?
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Does anybody think that Selig wants to delay an Expos exodus for another year so that he can move the Expos to northern New Jersey and end up fighting a turf war with three owners, rather than just one? The Phillies, Yankees and Mets would all go nuts.
"Someday, Las Vegas will have a team," said a highly placed baseball executive. "But right now, the only place with demographics similar to Washington is northern New Jersey. But it raises all the same problems as D.C. Only much worse."
Finally, neither baseball's owners nor its union have any desire whatsoever to contract the Expos after the correct collective bargaining agreement runs out. "No, no, nobody has an appetite for that," said one of the game's highest executives.
Baseball has said repeatedly that the Expos are going to be relocated for '05. But this time baseball is finally determined to meet its own deadline. Montreal's losses, inflicted on the other 29 owners, are too steep. And the promise of $700-million-plus windfall from Washington -- combining the cost of a ballpark and the likely purchase price of the Expos -- became too sweet.
As the last piece of the puzzle, a deadline was finally reached that both sides recognized was inflexible. Baseball understands that, for political and logistical reasons, the District needs an answer quickly. The city has been flexible on many things. In return, it has only asked -- demanded, actually -- one thing: a decent six-month period to get its plans passed by the city council at a normal pace and then get RFK Stadium ready for Opening Day.
The game understands that three new anti-baseball city councilmen will probably take office after Jan. 1. The sport also realizes that by accepting the District's M Street stadium site in a blighted, low population area that desperately needs urban renewal, it maximizes the odds that Mayor Anthony Williams can maintain his current support for such an expensive project. If there's one thing that baseball grasps and respects, it's the hardball of realpolitik.
Sherlock Holmes once solved the mystery of "the dog that didn't bark." Baseball now presents us with the case of the Orioles owner who didn't bite. The solution to the problem is elementary: The Expos are coming to Washington.
