Baseball President Robert A. DuPuy, who was informed of Cropp's statement by a reporter, rejected her request.
"We are expecting the Dec. 31 commitment date to be fulfilled," DuPuy said in an interview. He added: "We are not negotiating. We made our concessions in the course of negotiations with the mayor and made some clarifications we thought would satisfy the mayor and the council."
Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp leaves a news conference in which she asked baseball to "give us a few months."
(Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)
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In his WTOP interview, Williams said of the stadium financing deal, "I do believe it's close to dying, but I hope and I pray that with a lot of hard effort, cooler heads will prevail." Addressing "all the folks who want baseball here," he said, "you've got to speak up now."
Referring to Cropp's comments that most of the baseball supporters who have contacted her have called from 301 and 703 areas codes in the Maryland and Northern Virginia suburbs, Williams said that was "not a bad thing." On the contrary, he said, "it's a good thing, because it proves that . . . this initiative is going to draw investment from outside the city."
Williams did not mention any plans to meet personally with Cropp, saying that "I'm hoping that other people can make some headway where I'm not." Asked whether it would be Cropp's fault if the deal to bring baseball to the District fails, he said, "Everything ultimately redounds to the credit or the detriment of the mayor." But he added, "Now would I myself consider her to have blown things up? In my own calculations, yes."
Williams said he still hopes to find some kind of option "that gives her a victory" and allows the deal to go ahead.
He said city officials are looking into offers of private investment in a new baseball stadium. "We are very aggressive about considering this option, but we need the backup of public financing in order to provide assurance and the expectation to keep the deal alive."
He concluded, "My prediction is we will succeed; it will be very, very close."
Since the vote on Tuesday, neither the city nor Major League Baseball has moved closer to forging a solution that could secure the baseball team for the city. Although Williams had promised to talk with Cropp, the two did not meet yesterday. Baseball officials declined to say whether they had contacted any city officials.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) said yesterday that a top Major League Baseball official called him on Wednesday to discuss options facing the owners, the District and other regions interested in landing the franchise -- including Northern Virginia -- should the Washington deal unravel. Davis, who said that Congress should not get directly involved, said he thinks the chances are "better than 50-50" that the Washington deal will survive.
Davis said that baseball owners were not locked into a "take it or leave it" mode and ventured that the parties could probably sit down "and find 20 ways to make it work."
Davis said that the District should make the first move and that D.C. Council members would damage Washington's national business image for "this mayor, the next mayor and the next" if they did not reach an agreement.
Mayoral spokesman Chris Bender said Williams will not ask Major League Baseball to push back the deadline.
"We are not in the position to be asking that," he said. "We, the city, broke a commitment. Because of that, we can't be in the position of making demands. Obviously, it would be great if we had more time, but it's not up to us."
