Let the frenzy commence!

WUSA 9 TV gets the “let’s jump the gun” award today when Sports Director Brett Haber reported that he has “confirmed that the Lerner Group will be named in a news conference that could come as soon as Friday.”

Ticker immediately latched onto the story, and now it’s all over the wires.

Problem is, those tracking the story say it’s a bogus report, and that would make sense…

For one, Selig and DuPuy just met with the two finalist groups yesterday. And now, less than 24 hours later Selig has rendered a decision, notified Jeff Smulyan, and leaked it to, of all people, Brett Haber? Look, it certainly seems plausible that the Lerner group is going to land the Nationals, but this report seems, at best, premature.

MLB jumped into the fray to try and stem the rumor. Major League Baseball President Bob DuPuy made the following statement today regarding the ownership of the Washington Nationals:

“There has been unfortunate speculation rampant in the media in Washington, D.C. today that Commissioner Selig has selected one particular group to acquire the Washington Nationals and that a press announcement would be made on this Friday to announce the selection. Those rumors are baseless. No decision has been made to date. The Commissioner and I continue to meet with representatives of the groups and there will be an official announcement when the decision is made.”

UPDATE: The following is a press release from Smulyan’s PR group:

SMULYAN GROUP STILL IN CONTENTION FOR NATS OWNERSHIP

News Report Stating Decision Reached Is Inaccurate

[Washington, D.C.] [April 26, 2006] – News reports stating that Jeff Smulyan confirmed that Major League Baseball has chosen the Lerner Group for ownership of the Nationals are completely false.

“I made no such statement to any reporter at any time, anywhere” stated

Smulyan. “We are demonstrating every day that we will be the best stewards

for baseball and are leading the way with minority investors and have been

committed to diversity since day one. We are optimistic about our chances

and are proud to offer baseball such a historic opportunity.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 at 11:11 am and is filed under Baseball Insight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.