Selig Un-Intervening, Says No Clubs Moving

Despite his August promise to intervene in the Rays' Stadium Saga, Commissioner Bud Selig told reporters on Thursday that he has no plans to get involved in negotiations right now, according to Stephen Nohlgren {link to Times' site}.

A departure from his previous frustrations, Selig said he was comfortable with the direction of the conversation.  And his optimisim was echoed by Sternberg, now that Mayor-Elect Rick Kriseman about to take over St. Pete's City Hall:

Sternberg said Thursday he plans to talk soon with Rick Kriseman, who defeated Foster in the Nov. 5 mayoral election.

"I'll speak with the new mayor now that he's got a little time under his belt," Sternberg said. "He's got a lot of things to do to govern the city. Maybe that will help set some direction. I don't imagine it will right off the bat, but it'll be nice to be able to chat with him ... we've played some phone tag."

And even though MLB gave the go-ahead to play a couple exhibition games in Montreal next year (testing the waters, ironically, for a new stalking horse?), Selig was quoted in USA Today saying, "We don't have any clubs moving and we certainly don't have any expansion plans. But there are a lot of people up there who believe in this and I think that's great. I'm happy for them."