MLB owners will meet in N.Y. on Friday with
Commissioner Bud Selig, and USA TODAY's Rod Beaton reports
that MLB owners will "receive the long-awaited report" from
the Blue Ribbon Task Force on MLB Economics. The
committee's four outside group members, former U.S. Senate
Majority leader George Mitchell, former Federal Reserve
Board Chair Paul Volcker, Yale President Richard Levin and
political commentator George Will are "scheduled to attend"
the meeting. Also on the agenda is MLB's broadcast TV
rights negotiations (USA TODAY, 7/11). In N.Y., Murray
Chass notes that the report comes from the group that Selig
"appointed a year and a half ago." The owners also expect
to discuss "the status of the 2001 schedule, the likelihood
of an unbalanced schedule, the idea of rotating divisions
for interleague plays and the diminishing prospects of
realignment for next season" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/11).
SELIG HITS THE PR CIRCUIT: Selig appeared on FSN's
"Last Word" with Jim Rome at Turner Field yesterday. Selig,
on inter-league play: "I love the drama in the ballparks.
Inter-league, it just gets better for me." Selig, on the
financial disparity between the teams: "The disparity
question in baseball is so significant today ... that while
I used to rule out various options, I'm not going to rule
any options out today. I'm so concerned about disparity and
it's growing almost on a daily basis. ... The game is very
healthy, [but] the paradox is disparity has grown. ... The
average fan has two things - hope and faith. And when you
have a fair number of franchises who do not have a realistic
chance of hope and faith, it's the Commissioner's job to
restore that." Selig, on the next round of CBA negotiations
with the MLBPA: "I think we need to change a lot of our
rules" ("Last Word," FSN, 7/10).
AARON HAMMERS MLB: USA TODAY's Erik Brady profiles
Braves Exec VP and MLB all-time HR record holder Henry Aaron
in a Sports Cover Story. Aaron, on MLB: "We don't make the
game inviting enough to minorities. The prices are too high
for a lot of black families. ... Baseball has taken a lot of
things away from minority kids in the sense of building
baseball diamonds and making minorities understand that they
are welcome to the game" (USA TODAY, 7/11).
DO A LITTLE DANCE, TWIST A FEW ARMS, GET DOWN...: In
DC, Ray Glier reports that DC Sports Commission Chair John
Richardson and Commission Chair of Baseball Bill Hall are in
Atlanta for the All-Star Game, as is a delegation from
Northern VA, led by VA Baseball Club President William
Collins and Exec VP Mike Scanlon. Both groups "hope to
collar baseball owners and make the case for getting a
baseball team in the Washington area" (WASHINGTON POST,
7/11). Hall: "We want to show that Washington has gone
through a renaissance since the last time many in baseball
looked at it." Richardson: "Baseball's not going to come to
Washington unless we sell it" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 7/11).
