The Twins yesterday asked MLB's "most powerful
committee to allow them to begin their relocation process,"
according to Jay Weiner of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE.
Twins Owner Carl Pohlad and President Jerry Bell presented
MLB's Executive Council with a 38-page booklet that detailed
the team's situation. The two also discussed the "team's
bleeding finances, rebuffed legislative efforts and need to
explore options in other cities." The booklet presented to
the Council stated that the team believes "there aren't any
Minnesota-based buyers willing to keep the team in the state
at a price that Pohlad seeks" and that "no new owner could
sustain continuing losses in the Dome in the years before a
new stadium is built" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 6/11).
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: MN attorney Clark Griffith,
whose father, Calvin, sold the Twins to Pohlad in '84, said
yesterday that he and a group of partners "are poised" to
offer $80-90M for the team and "keep it in the Metrodome for
the next five years." Pohlad, told of Griffith's interest:
"You think I've been working my ass off for a new stadium to
put it up for sale?" But the STAR TRIBUNE's Weiner writes
that "Griffith's comments will undoubtedly shake up the new
ballpark campaign." In Philadelphia, AL owners "will
discuss the Twins' status" today and Acting Commissioner Bud
Selig said he "would have a 'definitive' Twins announcement
Thursday" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 6/11). A STAR TRIBUNE
editorial, on legislative action for a new ballpark: "Come
September they'll have to agree to a stadium financing plan
or face the virtual certainty of having the Twins announce a
few days later that they will leave Minnesota at the end of
the 1998 season" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 6/11).
