Orioles Owner Peter Angelos and the MLB delegation that
is visiting Cuba "likely will return home today without a
final agreement to stage the potentially historic" home-and-
home exhibition series, according to Peter Schmuck of the
Baltimore SUN. There will be "at least one more meeting"
with Cuban officials today before the delegation returns to
Baltimore today (Baltimore SUN, 1/19). Among those joining
Angelos in Cuba was MLB Exec VP/Operations Sandy Alderson,
Orioles LF B.J. Surhoff, MLB counsel Bill Schweitzer, MLBPA
rep Tony Bernazard (Baltimore SUN, 1/16). A "major hurdle"
in the negotiations "may be the distribution of revenue"
generated from the series (Baltimore SUN, 1/18).
NOTE: On ESPN.com, Tracy Ringolsby wrote that MLB's
"Blue Ribbon [Economic] Committee" assigned by Commissioner
Bud Selig "has some major flaws" and is "anything but a
bipartisan contingent." Four of the "so-called independent"
members have "ownership ties." George Mitchell was a
commissioner candidate; Paul Volcker was an ownership
appointee to a '90 study panel; Richard Levin was a "close
friend" of the late Bart Giamatti; and George Will is on the
Board of Dirs for the Orioles & Padres (ESPN.com, 1/18).
