MLB Acting Commissioner Bud Selig was interviewed by
Fox's Chip Carey and Steve Lyons before Saturday's "MLB on
Fox" telecast. Selig, on realignment: "The schedule really
right now just doesn't work and that's a disaster for all 30
clubs ... we're trying now to deal with individual club
concerns." Selig, asked if he had a concrete plan to
present at the owners' meetings in Atlanta this week: "Not
at this point. I mean, we have a significant number of
plans ... with variations off those plans." On the search
for a full-time commissioner: "There are serious candidates,
but we've agreed ... that to protect them and everybody else
that this is to be done on a very confidential basis ... we
haven't set a timetable, but I have said recently ... that
hopefully by the end of the year we'll have somebody at
least ready to come on board" ("MLB on Fox," 9/13).
PETER'S PRINCIPLE: Giants Owner Peter Magowan said that
he is "prepared to take his fellow owners to court to
prevent" an MLB realignment plan that would move the A's to
the NL, according to Henry Schulman of the S.F. EXAMINER.
Magowan said that the "legal basis for a suit would be the
Giants' franchise agreement, which decrees the Bay Area as
Giants territory" in the NL (S.F. EXAMINER, 9/14). MLB
owners will meet Tuesday through Thursday in Atlanta, with
realignment on the agenda. Padres President Larry Lucchino,
a member of the realignment committee, thinks a decision
will be reached on a '98 schedule: "Fortunately and
mercifully. We need to move on to the schedule. We need a
(1998) schedule and we need some decisions. The world isn't
waiting for a perfect decision. It's just waiting for a
decision" (Ross Newhan, L.A. TIMES, 9/14).
PARTY FOR FIVE: In L.A., Ross Newhan writes on Selig's
five-year reign as acting commissioner: "No one criticizes
Selig's passion or work ethic. He is on the phone 10 to 12
hours a day, earning the $2 million a year his colleagues
pay him." But one NL owner said, "I criticize Bud for
agreeing with everybody he talks to, whether he agrees with
them or not, and I also think five years is a very long
interim period." Newhan: "Selig has also tended to insulate
himself among allies, making sure that Reinsdorf and
Minnesota owner Carl Pohlad, among others, are always on the
executive council and other influential committees to help
Selig control vote." The NL owner adds that a "majority" of
NL owners would oppose Selig's possible candidacy for the
full-time position in part due to a "marketing void." The
NL owner: "That's where baseball has really suffered. Deals
just aren't getting done. The '97 season was a total loss
in that regard and there's no excuse for it. Greg Murphy
was hired [as MLBE President] with a lot of fanfare, but he
doesn't have Bud's support. It's a real void. We're not
generating the income we should" (L.A. TIMES, 9/15).
