Never underestimate the power of positive thinking, a little elbow grease and increasing media attention. Some crazy schemes seem just a little less crazy with those ingredients mixed into the scenario.

Three students at the University of Pennsylvania are attempting to buy the Montreal Expos franchise, which just might replace the Yankees' George Steinbrenner as the most interesting ownership in professional baseball.

Jesse Spector (senior-history), Sebastian Stockman (senior-English), and John Shazar (junior-history) have taken their efforts to a web site. At http://buytheexpos.poptopix.com/, people can log on and pledge money to the students for their effort to buy the Montreal Expos Major League Baseball franchise.

One night at The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper at Penn, the three men were sitting around when Jesse jokingly brought up the idea of buying a Major League Baseball team.

The elected leader, Spector said the group appointed him to the position.

"Everyone kind of gives me credit for starting it, but I like to deflect the credit," he said. "It was a group effort."

What started off as a joke has now become a rather serious investment.

"I didn't really think much of it," Stockman said. "It was just a silly office gag that didn't go anywhere for a couple of weeks, and then really surprised us when it blew up."

Spector added, "since we've been on ESPN, we've kind of taken it more seriously."

When a court ruling prevented Major League Baseball from contracting, or removing two teams, the head office purchased the Expos from their former owners for a bid of $100 million. The students believe that it will take at least this much to buy the team themselves.

At last update on March 18, their campaign had amassed $2,363,963.71. Not too many people are laughing at the joke now.

The Montreal Expos and the Minnesota Twins were the targets of Major League Baseball earlier this year in an attempt to eliminate two teams. The idea of disbanding any of the current 32 teams seems silly to Spector.

"You're coming off a wildly successful season, you don't want to get rid of teams," he said. "It's about making more talent."

He points to several promising prospects from overseas making their debuts in Major League Baseball this year such as Ichiro Suzuki, who won the American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player last year, and the talented U.S.-born minor league players.

"It's the fact that all the best talent is concentrated in the same six or seven teams every year," said Stockman. "The talent needs to be spread out, so that each team has a good mix. Parity is the name of the game."

Although the group may not know everything in terms of the financial and legal aspects of buying and running a Major League Baseball franchise, they have received counsel from friends and alumni of Penn. With this help, they are not looking to pass the money and responsibility off to an outside investor.

"It's about fans making an impact," says Spector. "Without fans, they wouldn't have baseball."

Stockman added, "I think baseball's in a hell of a lot of trouble. If this thing that we're doing sends any sort of message, I hope it's that fans are damn fed up."

Another issue the group must deal with is collecting the money. How will they do it?

"Magic," laughs Spector. "It's something we'll have to look into."

They have received pledges from all over the United States, Canada and even a few U.S. territories. However, there is the chance that an occasional pledge will be a joke: they received support from BillClinton@whitehouse.president.com.

Although they have generated quite an underground buzz among fans, these students have not had any contact from Major League Baseball itself.

"I think our only contact with MLB was when a guy from majorleaguebaseball.com called up and wanted to do a story on us," said Stockman. "He said he'd talked to the commissioner's office and they wouldn't even give him a 'no comment.' I think we're nicely under the radar screen at this point."

When they're not saving Major League Baseball teams from contraction, the three Penn students are just your average guys.

"I'm trying to find a job right now," says Spector. A former sports editor, now sports reporter for The Daily Pennsylvanian, he says class has been less than his primary concern lately.

"It's kind of taken a back seat," he says.