August

Here we are in August with no team and no timetable for getting one. Not that anyone in Washington cares, now that Joe Gibbs has come to save us all.

You've probably already heard that they won't have a decision on the Expos at the owners' meetings (August 18-19). I'm not sure that we've had any confirmation on this, but if Hal Bodley says it, it must be true.

Over at the message board Generalissimo Chris Rehling pointed out this extremely depressing article from the Seattle Times.

Contrary to widespread expectations, Washington-area fans and officials are
presumably in for a major disappointment by not getting the Montreal Expos for
next season or any season.
Commissioner Bud Selig told Peter Angelos, the Baltimore Orioles owner, who opposes the Expos' relocation in what he considers Orioles territory, that he would not do anything with the Expos that made Angelos unhappy.
Selig made that statement directly to Angelos in Houston on the day of the All-Star Game, and he repeated it later that day in a meeting with baseball's bankers.
Some baseball people speculated that Selig would put the team in Washington or northern Virginia anyway and make Angelos happy by giving him a large sum of money from the Expos sale. But Angelos shot down that idea.
"The answer is no," he said when asked if money would do the trick. "You don't destroy a franchise in return for some kind of cash payment."

Man, I hope that's not true. Here's the thing: Angelos has no right to stop a National League team in DC. If an AL team were trying to move here, he'd have a veto, but this is one of the few areas in which there is still a distinction between the leagues. It would be a real shame if Bud Selig deprived baseball of a market the quality of DC merely because he's friends with Angelos.

I've got some other stuff, but I'll save it. The Cards are on.