SHANGHAI, May 17 -- MAJOR League Baseball will send a high-level delegation to China this month to inspect stadiums ahead of a possible trip there for exhibition games next year, The Associated Press said today.

Bob DuPuy, MLB's chief operating officer, will head the group, which also will include San Diego Padres chief executive officer Sandy Alderson, Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino and Pittsburgh Pirates CEO Kevin McClatchy.

"It's the proverbial fact-finding trip," Lucchino said. "The Red Sox are in favor of international play and have been for a long time."

MLB has discussed the possibility of playing exhibition games in China next March. DuPuy said it also was possible those games could be tied to opening the regular season in Tokyo.

A ballpark is being built in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

"We don't know the status of the field at this point," DuPuy said.

In addition to Beijing, the delegation will travel to Shanghai. DuPuy said a decision would have to be made before the 2008 schedule is firmed up -- while management must give it to the players' association by July 1, the union in the past has granted delays.

Also making the trip will be MLB executive vice presidents Tim Brosnan and Jimmie Lee Solomon, and senior vice president Paul Archey. DuPuy said the group will head to China on May 29.

The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs opened the regular-season with a pair of games at the Tokyo Dome in 2000, and the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays started the 2004 schedule there with a two-game series.

With Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima pitching for Boston, interest in the Red Sox is high in Japan.

On another matter, DuPuy said MLB will not institute any league-wide change following the death of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock in a car crash. Hancock's blood-alcohol level was 0.157, nearly twice Missouri's legal limit of 0.08, and following the accident some teams have moved to more restrictive policies on alcohol in clubhouses and on charter flights.

"I think the commissioner has made it clear that he views that as a club policy, and that he has left it to the clubs to determine their policy," DuPuy said.

He also spoke out against player interaction with heckling fans during games. Thus far this season, Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr. autographed an athletic supporter and threw it at a fan in Los Angeles, and Toronto's Vernon Wells threw an autographed ball with a message to a fan in Cleveland.

"It's inappropriate and won't be condoned," DuPuy said.