Selig: No Date For Nats Owner

"It's not as frustrating for me," he said of the uncertain situation. "It's really just not fair for the coaching staff. These guys depend on these jobs, and they just can't go and get another job. . . . To hang them out there and to say, 'We don't know what's going to happen here. You feel free to go look for another job.' That's worse than saying, 'You're fired,' because if they're fired, then they know they have to go look for a job. . . . It's a very unfair situation here as far as that's concerned. It's even worse than in Montreal."

Robinson said he had fielded calls from most of the members of the coaching staff, who were asking about their futures. And even as he said his staff "worked as hard as they could have," there is a possibility, Robinson knows, that a condition of his return could be that the coaching staff be partially or completely overhauled.

"I would react diplomatically," Robinson said of that potential scenario. "In the past, I would be hitting the roof. I would listen to what they would have to say, and I would have my say. I would be strongly against changes.

"But today, the manager doesn't really have total control over these situations. . . . I certainly would be opposed to [changes]. But it wouldn't be either/or. I wouldn't put any ultimatums out there on myself."

The entire series of events over the last four years surprises even Robinson, who has been involved with baseball for more than half a century. "To be sitting here, after the move to Washington last year, and to have Major League Baseball entertaining groups of prospective buyers for the ballclub, I couldn't have envisioned that," Robinson said. "You're talking about the middle of November, and you still don't have one. I felt sure ownership would be in place by now, and this ballclub would basically be on the same type of grounds and be able to play and conduct business the same as the other 29 ballclubs are able to do. And right now, we're not."

Bowden, meanwhile, was the first candidate to interview with Red Sox management, including team president Larry Lucchino, at the general managers' meetings. Other potential candidates include Jim Beattie, the former co-GM of the Baltimore Orioles, as well as current members of Boston's front office. One person at the GM meetings said yesterday that the buzz in California is that there's still a possibility Theo Epstein will return.

Bowden is signed through April. If he leaves, Nationals President Tony Tavares said in an interview last week that there's a possibility Tavares would have to serve as interim GM, because hiring someone new with ownership pending wouldn't be prudent. "It's not something I relish," Tavares said.

Nationals Notes: The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which owns television broadcasting rights for the Nationals, announced a deal with Verizon to broadcast games on fiber-optic television when the communications giant brings the technology to the Washington area next year. . . . Tavares said that David Cope, the team's vice president for sales and marketing, has not been asked back for next season. The Nationals won't fill the position until a new owner is named. . . . Veteran outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds, who retired from the Nationals in May, filed for free agency yesterday, though it's unlikely he'll try to make a comeback.