D.C. Baseball Commission Asks Money Men to Put Up or It Will Shut Up

The District of Columbia Baseball Commission has challenged area money men to put up the money needed to acquire a team--or the commission will shut up.

City Councilman Frank Smith Jr., chairman of the commission, told members at this week’s bimonthly meeting that he expects the National League to request presentations from interested cities within 60 days, then select two expansion teams in another 60 days.

“I feel like a batter in the last of the ninth with two outs,” Smith said. “You just hope you get your pitch. ... I think this is the final push.”

Although St. Petersburg, Denver, Phoenix and perhaps even Buffalo are believed to rank ahead of Washington in the minds of club owners, Smith said he has been assured that the nation’s capital is high on the list--if the investors are available.

“At the winter meetings in Nashville, I talked to an owner on the expansion committee and I told him, ‘If we’re just spinning our wheels, let us know and we’ll drop it,’ ” Smith said. “I was assured not only that we were still in the ballgame, but that we are one of the top cities.

“If he’d said, ‘You guys don’t have much of a chance,’ I’d have left him alone, but instead he said, ‘By most measures, Washington is one of the top contenders.’ But there was concern that we don’t have an ownership group.”

After the commission’s public meeting Wednesday, he asked the media to leave while he held a brief closed session. He said later it was devoted to forcing movement in the ownership area.

“We have people on the commission with various committee assignments, including bankers and business people,” he said. “They’re responsible for working with the bankers and business people who are the prospective owners. One of the reasons we closed the meeting was to read the riot act to them.

“We’re sending them out to have serious discussions with possible ownership people. We believe there are people out there who are ready. The problem is that baseball hasn’t been ready and we’re not sure they are now.

“When the time comes to make our presentation, we either will or we won’t have an ownership group. If we don’t have somebody in the Fortune 500, we won’t go. Whenever we get our dates set, they have to step forward.”

One potential owner stepped forward, but sidestepped the issue at the same time.

Jack Kent Cooke, who is trying to get a new stadium built for his Redskins, noted that RFK was designed as a baseball stadium and said that is where any D.C. team should play. “I am deeply interested in seeing Washington get a National League franchise,” he said. “Whether I would be instrumental to the city getting it or not is premature to say. The city ought to be represented in major-league baseball.”

The commission sent a delegation to a previous expansion meeting in 1986, wearing buttons that read “Baseball in 1987.” Nothing ever developed from that meeting.

However, congressional pressure for expansion prompted the NL to say it would move toward adding two teams once the owners and players had negotiated a new collective-bargaining agreement. That done, NL President Bill White said he preparing guidelines for interested cities.

“We’re going to get one opportunity and we’ve got to knock their socks off,” said commission member Andy Ockershausen.

The commission’s presentation was derided in some quarters in 1986 and commission member Rose Elder said: “We’re in a competitive arena. We’re not the only city seeking a baseball team. We have to be at least comparable in our presentation to what other cities are doing.

“Last time it was pointed out that we were far behind others in the presentation. We can’t afford to make that mistake again. We need a Madison Avenue slick presentation so we can look at least as good.”

The commission is spending $44,645 for brochures, presentation boards, crystal baseballs with marble stands, lapel pins, buttons and leather brochure covers. Of that, $25,000 has been allocated by the D.C. Armory Board, which is expected to supply the rest.

The commission is preparing a newsletter for potential ticket buyers, as well as a letter-writing campaign involving public officials. A reception is planned before the April 7 exhibition at RFK Stadium between the Baltimore Orioles and St. Louis Cardinals.

A possible second exhibition, involving the Orioles and Chicago White Sox on April 8, is in the works, if the Cleveland Indians can fulfill the Orioles’ April 8 commitment to the Cardinals in Louisville. If that falls through, the commission hopes to attract a record crowd to the April 7 game, to influence the NL owners.

The delay in the schedule has created problems everywhere. Smith, baseball’s loudest proponent, is committed to the kickoff of his re-election campaign on April 7.

“I have to take care of the necessities first,” he said. “But I’ll get to the ballpark sometime that day.”