Posted on 07/23/2004 5:20:35 AM PDT by BluegrassScholar
Expos players were told this week that a decision on their 2005 home is near, that it won't be Montreal and that there is a strong likelihood they will be living in the Washington, D.C., area.
Sources familiar with the Expos' relocation process told ESPN.com on Thursday that union leaders Donald Fehr and Gene Orza met Wednesday with Montreal player representative Brian Schneider and assistant rep Brad Wilkerson.
The player reps were informed by the union that there is now an overwhelming probability that they will wind up in either Washington or Northern Virginia -- although there is still a small chance that baseball could opt to move the franchise to Las Vegas.
The players now believe Washington is the favorite, with Northern Virginia looming as a compromise choice if Orioles owner Peter Angelos attempts to block Washington's bid. Either way, the players were told that the union is very confident this is, finally, their last season in Montreal.
They also came away with the impression that San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the Expos have been playing a portion of their home schedule, and Monterrey, Mexico, also are no longer being seriously considered.
Relocation candidates such as Portland, Ore., and Norfolk, Va., were pictured as being extremely unlikely.
Players were not given a specific deadline for an announcement to be made, but it is expected to be sometime in August. Owners have a meeting scheduled in Philadelphia Aug. 18-19, which appears to be a new, though informal, target date for a decision.
Commissioner Bud Selig said last week that a decision would be announced "sometime this summer."
But for scheduling reasons, and to provide as much time as possible to refurbish RFK Stadium as a temporary home for either a Washington or Northern Virginia team, several sources have been predicting an announcement by mid-August.
Orza declined comment, other than to confirm he met with the Expos' player reps. Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said only that baseball is still in the midst of evaluating candidates, and that "no conclusions have been reached."
With either of these locations, Angelos is gonna be pi$$ed. The Orioles are no longer the only game in town.
First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League. (Oops - strike that last part).
Would they be the Senators? I like to se them called the lobbyists. Of course the options are numerous...the Washington Burglars? the Crackpipes?
Woo-Hoo!
Pretty sure it will be Senators if they move to DC.
Regards, M. Barry
(I don't care what you say, the bitch still set me up!)
The stadium will be less than 5 miles from my house if they come to Northern Virginia. That will make it a VIRGINIA team NOT a Washington team.
Blast! Looks like Norfolk is out of the running. All that wasted effort by our area's leaders down the tubes when any third grader could have told them their effort would be a failure.
I'm sure Angelos's hissy fit will draw yawns from the Mets/Yankees, Cubs/White Sox, Dodgers/Angels, Giants/Athletics...
SuperNoVas.
So would I, but they would first need a ballpark with a retractable roof, like Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. Build it right on the Strip, make it hold 60,000 people, and they would sell out every game and make nearly as much money as the Yankees.
And the franchise could hire Pete Rose as Vice President of Community Relations (hee, hee!)
Since we have the Redsox and Whitesox, how about the Washington Stuffedsox in honor of Sandy Berger?
LOL!
The Red, White and Blue Sox.
I know what you mean. I'm a life-long Mets fan.
Definately the owners. I'm sure there were a lot of 'Nat's fans who were PO's when the Twins won in '65 after having been so lousy in Washington from the 30's though the 50's.
I'm not as angry about this move as I normally would be. Being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan (even though I was born in 1966), I'm no friend of those who would move teams. However the case of the Expos is different. Montreal's and Quebec's English speaking population, the backbone of the Expo's fan base have been slowly driven out by hostile Quebec Party (Parti Quebecious) governments in Quebec City. They are now in Toronto or Alberta and are Blue Jays fans. It's a real shame what happened to a once great baseball town.
Washington, First in War, First in Peace, ? in the National League.
FYI the NL had a team in Washington until 1899 when the league folded four teams, Cleveland, Louisville, & one I can't remember being the others.
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