COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- The investors were angry. The government officials were angry.

But the owners of the Oakland Athletics had a muted reaction Wednesday night after baseball put off a decision on the proposed $122.4 million sale of the team to a group headed by Save Mart Foods chairman Bob Piccinini.

"We are committed to building on the franchise's success," said Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann, who bought the A's from the Haas family for $85 million in November 1995.

Piccinini's deal says it expires unless it closes by Sept. 21. Owners voted 28-2, with only the A's and Chicago Cubs dissenting, to table consideration of the sale.

"As far as I'm concerned, we're out of it," Piccinini said. "Unless the present owners put an extension on it, we're dead meat."

Piccinini's group, assembled by former A's executive Andy Dolich, came away feeling it was misled, that baseball never intended to vote on the sale this week.

"If they knew that was the way the deal was going to do down, why did they allow all of us and the city fathers to go through the process?" Piccinini said.

When Schott and Hofmann bought the A's, they signed a nine-year lease at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum that runs through 2004. When they agreed to the deal with Piccinini's group last October, the county agreed to move up the lease's expiration to 2001, giving the team the right to extend it annually through 2004.

A high-ranking baseball official, speaking on the condition he not be identified, said the government had threatened litigation. Alameda County counsel Richard Winnie wouldn't comment on a lawsuit but didn't hide his anger, especially when commissioner Bud Selig said the sale was put off because of the uncertain economics of baseball's small markets.

"They wound up denying it on grounds they never raised along the way," Winnie said.

Selig said before the sale is considered, baseball must receive the report of its latest economic study committee. While Selig said he expected the report in about three months, baseball often fails to meet its own deadlines.

"The hardships of baseball economics is making all our decisions when it comes to franchises," Selig said.

In the meantime, Schott and Hofmann now have a shorter lease, and have the ability to seek a potential purchaser who would pay more. With the A's competing for a postseason berth, the team is more attractive to bidders.

"The team is performing on the field and attendance is up," they said in their statement. "We hope that support will continue to grow."