Lawyers for the Twins, MLB and the MN Attorney
General's office "were ordered Friday to work out an
agreement on the scope of a preliminary antitrust
investigation by the state against the team and the game's
owners," according to Jay Weiner of the Minneapolis STAR
TRIBUNE. Ramsey County District Judge Margaret Marrinan
told both sides to report to her today on any agreement they
may reach, but Weiner reported that "resolution seemed
unlikely." Lawyers from the Attorney General's office said
they were willing to "scale back" their earlier request for
dozens of documents dating back to '61 and answers to
questions to Twins Owner Carl Pohlad, Acting MLB
Commissioner Bud Selig and others, and would instead settle
for information from MLB dating to '83. But Twins lawyer
Roger Magnuson said, "We believe the law requires that there
be no discovery in this case" (STAR TRIBUNE, 5/9).
SHOW HIM SOME MONEY: Pohlad, on rumors that he turned
down a $100M offer to buy the Twins: "Nobody has made any
offers to me. ... Clark Griffith and others talk, but I have
never seen the color of their money." On Wednesday, though,
Mike Veeck "will meet" with Pohlad's financial adviser, Bob
Starkey. Veeck: "We have the financial backing to buy the
club if it is for sale" (Sid Hartman, STAR TRIBUNE, 5/9).
On "Baseball Tonight," ESPN's Peter Gammons reported the
Twins may be "able to work something out [and] eventually
get a ballpark in either St. Paul or somewhere around
Minneapolis, but in the meantime, why lose money with a $27
million payroll if you're going to finish fourth in the
division anyway?" Gammons said it is "likely" that the
Twins will pare down payroll to "maybe" $12 to $14 million
and try to rebuild ("Baseball Tonight," 5/10)
