When Bodley Comes Marching Home Again

Almost exactly a month after he waved the white flag, USA Today columnist Hal Bodley has shoveled the last bit of dirt on the Loudoun Cabal and hoisted ours.

The commissioner now must make another difficult decision. He has no other option this time either. He must move the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C., and not linger in making the announcement.
When baseball's executive council meets Thursday in Milwaukee, it will be told what just about every owner now knows. Downtown Washington, temporarily at RFK Stadium, is really the only location the Expos can be placed.

Bodley was once a vocal supporter of that farcical Loudoun County plan you may have heard of. Now, just in time, he's on our side. Welcome home, Hal.

Here's something that really sticks in my craw, wherever that is:

There must be a creative financial solution to projected losses for the Orioles caused by a team in D.C.
My guess is much of Thursday's meeting will center around ways to eliminate the impact on the Orioles.

I've got a creative financial solution for you: Angelos gets one (1) American dollar and a framed, autographed picture of my ass. Peter Angelos has done absolutely everything he could to stop Washington from getting a team, and now he gets paid when it happens? Yeah, yeah - he loses his broadcast monopoly and all, but he knew full well when he bought the Orioles (and subsequently ran them into the ground) that DC was not part of his territory. It's a shame that the ability to kiss up and threaten lawsuits should be rewarded. If I tell Bud that haircut looks great, flirt with his daughter and nominal Brewers owner Cruella, and then tell the Baltimore Sun I'm going to sue both of them, can I get a couple million?

There's still the RICO suit. Eric Fisher has a run-down in the Times today, if you're interested. I admit that everything I know about legal matters I picked up from Law and Order, but look at it this way: what are the chances a judge is going to order the Expos to stay in Montreal? That's the only way they're not coming to DC, and that seems pretty unlikely.

I'm eagerly anticipating any news that comes out of the Executive Council meeting on Thursday. Maybe we'll get a full-on announcement and maybe not, but we'll get something.