Baseball Union Officials Deny Report on Expos' Future

Major League Baseball players' union officials today denied reports on ESPN that they told some Montreal Expos players during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that they will likely be playing in the Washington, D.C., area next year.

"What we essentially told them is that we have reason to expect Major League Baseball will make a decision, hopefully by the owners' meeting in a few weeks . . . and that a number of places are on the list," said MLB Players Association Executive Director Donald Fehr. "Nobody gave them assurances that they will be going to any location as opposed to anyplace else. People can make their own judgments on that, but we didn't make it for them."

The players union has no role in the relocation process.

MLB President Bob DuPuy called the report that the Expos will be playing on the Washington area next year "preposterous, not true."

"Apparently, union representatives offered their opinion of what might happen," said DuPuy in an e-mail. "It carries no imprimatur. No decision has been made and no recommendation has been made to the commissioner. Uninformed comments like this do not move the process along."

DuPuy has said that baseball is considering all six possible relocation sites, including Washington, Northern Virginia, Las Vegas; Norfolk, Va.; Portland, Ore., and Monterey Mexico.

Commissioner Bud Selig has said the team will almost assuredly be playing somewhere other than Montreal for the 2005 season and that a decision will be made sometime this summer.

DuPuy has said the league has set a goal of trying to finish the relocation process by an August owners' meeting in Philadelphia.