Impending Nats Sale Arouses Speculation

A midday report by WUSA (Channel 9) claiming that the Lerners had the bid wrapped up set off a buzz that ran from the Nationals game at RFK to MLB headquarters on Park Avenue in New York, where representatives from the Lerner group were meeting with league officials.

DuPuy took the rare step of issuing a denial of the Channel 9 report. "There has been unfortunate speculation rampant in the media in Washington, D.C., today that Commissioner Selig has selected one particular group to acquire the Washington Nationals and that a press announcement would be made on this Friday to announce the selection," he said in a statement. "Those rumors are baseless. No decision has been made to date. The commissioner and I continue to meet with representatives of the groups and there will be an official announcement when the decision is made."

Brett Haber, sports director at Channel 9, said: "We absolutely stand by the story. We appreciate baseball has their own time frame, but that doesn't negate the validity of our sources. Whether we are proven correct tomorrow or a week from tomorrow, we believe we will be proven correct."

At RFK, Nationals officials spent time on the phone with their bosses at league headquarters and were assured that no decision on ownership had been reached. Tony Tavares, the Nationals' president, called the report "hooey" after he got off the phone with Selig.

Jack Evans, one of the top baseball supporters on the D.C. Council, scoffed when asked in a telephone interview whether he had been told by MLB that the Lerners had been selected.

"Yeah, I'm sure that Bud Selig woke up yesterday and said: 'How can I release this information? Oh, yeah, let's call Channel 9!' " Evans said sarcastically, before adding that he has not heard of any final decision.

That didn't stop reporters from descending on RFK. Television crews from Washington channels 4, 5, 7 and 9 were on hand with cameramen, even though the Nationals don't normally attract such coverage for a midweek game in April.

As the players packed their bags for a six-game road trip, they responded to questions from the media about the ownership race, but said it rarely, if ever, comes up when they speak to each other.

"I just am sick and tired of keeping hearing different stories about this -- this week, next week, the week after that," outfielder Jose Guillen said. "It's much better if they can get it done and get it over. It'd be good if we had a real owner to finally take control to take care of stuff in here. But the only thing we can do is play baseball from now on."

Staff writers Barry Svrluga and David Nakamura and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.