Expos Veto Proposal to Shift 2004 Games

NEW YORK — The Montreal Expos voted Friday against shifting a quarter of next season’s home games to Puerto Rico or Mexico.

Major League Baseball asked players Thursday to move about a quarter of the Expos’ home games next season from Montreal to either San Juan or Monterrey.

Players met with Gene Orza of the Players’ Assn. and other union officials Friday and took an informal vote. Games can’t be moved from Montreal without an agreement with the union.

To increase revenue, baseball relocated 22 Expo home games this season to San Juan. Orza said the initial proposal for 2004 called for about the same number of games to be moved. Games would have been moved to only one location outside Montreal, not both.

“We were disappointed at the apparent decision of the players to not agree to split the 2004 season,” said Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer. “We thought the experiment this season was a success in presenting the game to a new market and consistent with the globalization of the game.”