Northern Virginia

HERE'S WHAT you need to know about where Washington has decided to put its proposed ballpark, and why Peter Angelos can't possibly be happy about it: If they build it, they will come. If D.C. builds it along the Anacostia waterfront in a Southeast Washington area starving for development, baseball will come to it. There will be a Washington Expos, or Senators, or Grays, or Not-Orioles, or some tenant under some name. They'll be there. Bud Selig and Co. will be so on board with this plan, they might as well walk into today's owners meeting with Metro farecards in hand.

The Montreal Expos may be headed for the Washington area, but the defeat of three pro-stadium members of the D.C. City Council in Tuesday's primary election may steer the vagabond team to Northern Virginia. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has been pushing for a recommendation from Major League Baseball's relocation committee by the start of the postseason in early October, but the selection process developed a snag when popular former Mayor Marion Barry won the Democratic primary for the Ward 8 City Council seat and declared that a publicly financed baseball stadium would be built "over my dead body."

Every time I read another angst-ridden column about the joy that the rest of the world has been taking in our Olympic failures, I can't help but wonder if anyone is old enough to remember anything that happened before the first day of the Iraq war. Spanish fans cheering the loss of the U.S. basketball team to Argentina? Greek radicals protesting the visit of Colin Powell to Athens? General anti-Americanism in Europe? Resentment of the United States in the major non-English-speaking countries in Europe dates to the 1950s, soon after America saved the continent from Adolf Hitler.

The long, slow march toward finding a new home for the Montreal Expos returned to Washington yesterday for the first of two days of meetings with groups hoping to persuade Major League Baseball to move the team to the region. MLB officials, including president and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy, the man in charge of the search, and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, a member of the relocation committee, yesterday met with representatives of Washington's bid. Today they are scheduled to talk with the group that wants to build a stadium in Loudoun County, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport, for the Expos.

PHILADELPHIA - In September 1992, Bud Selig told his wife, Sue, that his fellow owners had decided to make him Major League Baseball's acting commissioner. She asked him how long it would last, and he told her, "Two to four months." He recalled that story yesterday, after ownership voted unanimously to give him a three-year extension as commissioner, through 2009. "It's got to be the longest two to four months in history," Selig said. Yesterday's announcement about Selig, which had been expected, came as the owners continued to mull where to relocate the Montreal Expos, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for the Orioles.

HOUSTON -- The man leading the search for a new home for the Montreal Expos said yesterday that he hopes Major League Baseball will have a decision by the owners' meeting next month in Philadelphia. "I think that's a good working goal," said Bob DuPuy, MLB's president and chief operating officer, referring to the meeting scheduled Aug. 17-20. "The sooner we get it done, the better. "It's just a matter of making a decision and getting things done," DuPuy added before a news conference honoring baseball's living 500 home run hitters.

HERNDON, Va. - In unveiling Northern Virginia's stadium plan for the potential relocation of the Montreal Expos, prospective owner Bill Collins had a message for Orioles owner Peter Angelos yesterday. "I urge Peter Angelos to endorse this site," said Collins, chairman of the Virginia Baseball Club, raising his voice to the applause of a couple of hundred people at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. Angelos has opposed relocating the Expos to the Washington area, arguing it would infringe upon his market.

AS EARLY AS next month, the lords of Major League Baseball may finally announce their decision on where they'll move the failed Montreal Expos franchise. Washington, out of the game since 1971, is trying to get back in with two proposals, one from the district itself and the other from Northern Virginia. Its market is larger and more prosperous than the other five competitors, and many believe its case is the most compelling. That is, unless you care about the future of one of the game's premier franchises, the Baltimore Orioles, and the competitive imbalances already crippling the entire game.

If the Montreal Expos relocate to the Washington area, it would be the beginning of the end for the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles' revenue would plummet, cutting the money for player payroll and development. The Orioles and the franchise down the road would be - at best - mediocre teams. Or ... If the Expos relocate to the Washington area, it would not hurt the Baltimore Orioles - in fact, it would make them better. Majority owner Peter G. Angelos would be forced to spend more to field a better team, and his employees in the B&O warehouse would be forced to improve marketing.

The closer Major League Baseball gets to making a decision on the relocation of the Montreal Expos, the more you have to wonder if the owners had the right idea when they threatened to contract the team in 2001. There is no perfect option for the Expos, who can't survive in Montreal and don't appear to be a can't-miss proposition in any of the prospective cities that have shown an interest in them. The relocation committee is expected to make a final report to commissioner Bud Selig in the next few weeks, and Selig claims that he'll put the best choice to a vote of the full ownership sometime this summer, but the ownership meeting that took place Wednesday and Thursday in New York didn't exactly clarify the situation.