Article in the Associated Press via the San Francisco Chronicle

Nationals sale to be discussed at owners meeting

By JOHN NADEL, AP Sports Writer
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

The impending sale of the Washington Nationals and the steroids issue figure to be the most high-profile topics when baseball owners hold their quarterly meeting Wednesday and Thursday.

Major League Baseball figures to be the big winner when the Nationals' sale goes through "” hopefully sooner than later.

The sport's other 29 teams bought the then-Montreal Expos in 2002 for $120 million as part of a complicated transaction that involved new owners for the Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins.

MLB wished to disband the team, but that didn't happen. After a couple of ugly seasons when the Expos played some home games in Puerto Rico before sparse crowds, the franchise was moved to Washington, D.C. last winter.

That turned out to be an enormously successful development since the Nationals have fared well on the field and attracted a healthy fan following, prompting interest from as many as eight groups. The sale price could approach $450 million "” far more than originally anticipated.

Baseball once hoped to complete the sale by the beginning of the season. No announcement is expected at this meeting, although an update is anticipated. Something definitive could be known by the end of the month.

The owners will be meeting for the first time since Baltimore's Rafael Palmeiro became the first big star to test positive for steroids and served a 10-day suspension.

Commissioner Bud Selig later reiterated his desire for even more stringent testing and harsher penalties for steroid users, including a 50-game suspension for a first offense, 100 games for a second and a lifetime ban for a third.

Management and the union agreed to toughened rules last January that included 10-day suspensions for first-time offenders starting this year.

Owners also may propose moving the amateur draft from early June to late June and vote to eliminate the Gulf Coast and Arizona leagues, Baseball America reported last week.