Kevin McClatchy and negotiators for the Pirates' ownership group
were "completing paperwork" yesterday and could announce a
completed sale "as early as today," according to the PITTSBURGH
POST-GAZETTE. Pirates President Mark Sauer said the "lawyers are
working hard and making good progress," and McClatchy added that
money was no longer an issue. McClatchy: "Yeah, I think we're
fine on that." Steve Halvonik notes that neither Sauer nor
McClatchy would say how long it would take "to resolve remaining
matters." The Pirates will not consider another bid from DC
attorney Bart Fisher until matters with McClatchy are decided
"one way or the other" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 9/27). Fisher
insisted last night that the offer from his group was "more
attractive than McClatchy's." Fisher: "The bottom line is that
we have made a great offer and we have a great group. It doesn't
take a rocket scientist to figure that out. We have presented
the best offer. We have offered $5 million more" (Thom Loverro,
WASHINGTON TIMES, 9/27).
BARTMAN: Fisher is profiled by the WASHINGTON POST's Ken
Denlinger. "Even some who admire him acknowledge that Fisher
occasionally exaggerates in his baseball deal-making, that he
tries to stretch triples into inside-the-park homers and gets
tagged out by the facts. So the question persists: Is this man
for real?" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/27).
