Selig: Season Won’t Be Interrupted for Olympics

Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa shouldn’t count on a chance to hit homers at the Athens Olympics.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig all but ruled out participation of major leaguers in the 2004 Games, saying the sport cannot interrupt its season.

“The Olympic situation is quite difficult,” Selig said Thursday at the World Congress of Sports. “The ebb and flow of the game is critical, and we can’t disturb that.”

In November, the International Olympic Committee put off until after the 2004 Games any vote on dropping baseball from the 2008 Olympic schedule.

International Baseball Federation President Aldo Notari said last year that the sport would be willing to shorten its Olympic schedule from 11 days to five, which could make the games more attractive to the major leagues. But Selig sounded as if any interruption to the regular season was close to impossible.

*

Major League Baseball still hopes to decide the 2004 home of the Montreal Expos by the All-Star break. The committee on the Expos’ future will hear presentations next week with government groups from Washington, Northern Virginia and Portland, Ore. Bob DuPuy, baseball’s No. 2 official, said Thursday a timetable should emerge after those meetings.

*

Finally, Bob Uecker will be in the front row for something -- the Hall of Fame ceremony.

The popular Milwaukee Brewer broadcaster was picked for the Ford C. Frick Award and will be inducted into the announcers’ wing of the Hall on July 27.

Uecker will join former players Eddie Murray and Gary Carter and Dayton Daily News writer Hal McCoy at the ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y.

*

Baltimore Oriole designated hitter David Segui is expected to sit out seven weeks because of a broken right thumb. Segui was injured during fielding practice Wednesday.... Alex Rodriguez returned to Texas for tests on his stiff left shoulder. Rodriguez complained of stiffness and fatigue in the shoulder after playing the last two days.... Kenny Rogers and the Minnesota Twins finalized a $2-million, one-year contract after the left-hander passed a physical.

*

Former New York Met and Philadelphia reliever Tug McGraw, a spring training instructor for the Phillies the last two years, has been hospitalized for tests. Spokeswoman Leigh Tobin would not elaborate on the illness.