MLB owners, who begin their three-day quarterly
meetings today in St. Petersburg, "are expected to approve
the sale" of the Dodgers to Rupert Murdoch and "discuss
their slow-moving search for a permanent commissioner"
(Peter Schmuck, Baltimore SUN, 3/17). In Denver, John
Henderson reports that the owners "have no intention of
naming" a new commissioner. Search Committee Chair Jerry
McMorris said the owners "will take a step toward
finalization and a commissioner should be named sometime
soon, maybe later this spring." NL President Len Coleman
"is considered a leading candidate," but McMorris said that
"unnamed candidates are coming from the entertainment and
hospitality fields as well as sports." McMorris said that
acting Commissioner Bud Selig "will not be a candidate
unless owners vote him in" (DENVER POST, 3/16).
THIS BUD'S FOR YOU: In Milwaukee, Bob Wolfley writes
that Chicago Tribune baseball columnist Jerome Holtzman
"offers his opinion about the best commissioner in the
history" of MLB in his new book, "The Commissioners:
Baseball's Midlife Crisis." Holtzman wrote that "the two
commissioners who had the worst public image and were the
most pilloried by the press, were (and are) the best: Ford
Frick ... and Bud Selig." Holtzman said that Selig, MLB's
"busiest" commissioner, has overseen big changes such as
interleague play and revenue sharing(JOURNAL-SENTINEL,3/17).
