Add all that up, and what have you got? Well, you've got a team that's obviously going nowhere before 2004. But more importantly, you've got unhappy people in both Montreal and Washington who can't see the up side to another year of limbo.

"I can understand where staying here is the lesser of the evils," said one Expos official. "But at the same time, they need to realize that that creates other evils."

For the Expos, limbo doesn't mean treading water. It means regressing. To bring back the same promising group of players they have this year with a $37 million payroll would mean a $55-million to $60-million payroll next year. And if the other 29 clubs are paying the Expos' bills again, that isn't happening. Trust us.

Plus, limbo also means uncertainty for every Expos employee, from GM Omar Minaya and manager Frank Robinson down to every scout and minor-league coach operating on a one-year contract.

All of those folks did an astonishing job of running the Expos like a real major-league franchise for one bizarre year. But they did it short-staffed and with no assurances about their own futures. How can MLB put those people in the same tenuous position for another year, particularly when the other 29 clubs continue to grumble about pouring their own money down Montreal's bottomless pit?

In the meantime, the folks in our capital aren't too pleased, either. If MLB has issues with the stadium or ownership-group situation, the people involved in the Washington and Northern Virginia bidding say they haven't been told of them.

"We would welcome the opportunity to speak to anyone in baseball at any time on any subject regarding the return of major-league baseball to Washington," said Bobby Goldwater, president and executive director of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, which is working to bring a team to the district. "Washington, D.C. is ready for baseball and has everything Major League Baseball would require to succeed -- including a ballpark immediately available."

That ballpark, however, is RFK Stadium -- which is not to be confused with Camden Yards. And while Goldwater says his group is ready to present the results of its latest study of potential new-ballpark sites to MLB next month, that isn't good enough for MLB.

If those locations aren't for sale, if neighbors and government authorities haven't signed off on them as ballpark sites, if money hasn't been allocated, the commissioner's office apparently isn't impressed.

Goldwater understands that the people in D.C. can't control baseball's timetable. So if MLB doesn't want to move the Expos until 2004, "we'll be ready," he says. But if it wants to move sooner, "we'll be ready for that, too."

So what do they do? Obviously, baseball doesn't think enough pieces are in place to make a move workable in time for next season. But it's more obvious that it's absurd to sentence the Expos to another season in a place they're no longer wanted.

And it's almost scandalous to force them to break up a team close to contention because the owners of the teams they play against have no interest in subsidizing a club that just might beat them.

Of all the goofy situations this sport has created for itself in recent years, this one, in many ways, out-goofys them all. It's time to resolve this situation, sell this team and move on -- the sooner the better.