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SELIG TO TAKE REALIGNMENT PLAN TO ATLANTA, BUT WHICH ONE?

          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). 

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