ESPN reports that baseball will not make a decision on the Expos until at least Labor Day with the season finale being the "drop-dead date'' du jour. Baseball had targeted the forthcoming All-Star break for a final decision, but for a league that was reportedly set to contract a team even as spring training began, apparently they cannot agree on a future home the beleaguered franchise. Or maybe they like laundering players through Montreal, Juan Gonzalez notwithstanding. Suiters from at least two of the groups were converging on Chicago for wining and dining of the Bud and the boys.

Baseball appears in hurry to solve a clearly untenable position though options abound. Keeping Montrel in purgatory until 2006, when contraction because a unilateral decision on the owners' part, seems to be one option they want to keep open. Again Bud micromanages every aspect of the All-Star game (new voting procedures, the winning league gets home-field advantage in the Series, the Italian Sausage will sing the national anthem, etc.), but does not even attempt to cure baseball's current biggest problem.