The Lerner group wins the bidding war for the Washington Nationals.

Selig is expected to hold a telephone news conference from Milwaukee at 4:45 p.m., sources said. The Lerners are planning their own news conference at 7 p.m. at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington.

Lerner has agreed to pay Baseball's price of $450 million for the franchise and the league has said it will fast-track the Lerners' approval process and vote on the Nationals' purchaser in time for the league's next owners' meeting May 17-18 in New York. Lerner is expected to take possession in June.

It's about time. Stan Kasten will run the club. We'll see if his first move is to fire Bowden.

Of course, since baseball got the group such a sweetheart deal on a stadium, I'm sure Lerner is another owner who owes his allegiance to Bud. And, since Bud made a nice piece of change for all the other owners, it's another reason for everyone else to be pleased with the commissioner.

Best of luck to the Lerner group. It's good to see baseball back in Washington, and I hope they can be more successful than the other baseball franchises in the city. They've been given a good start with the stadium deal. We'll see if they can build a winner.