Owners Support NL President : Baseball: Bill White, who threatened to resign, gets the backing he sought on incident involving umpire Joe West.

Bill White, National League president, gained the support he wanted from owners here Wednesday concerning an incident with umpire Joe West.

“Bill has the full support on his stance in this matter,” said Bill Giles, Phillies’ president. “Bill seemed satisfied everybody was behind him. I hope he gained some power in the West case.”

White met with West after the veteran umpire threw Philadelphia pitcher Dennis Cook to the ground during a Phillies-Dodgers brawl Aug. 22 and ejected Phillie Von Hayes for making a remark to a first base coach about another umpire.

West said White supported his actions. But White quickly issued a contradictory statement, saying he had barred the umpire from making further physical contact with players.

Richie Phillips, executive director of the Major League Umpires Assn., then asked Commissioner Fay Vincent to intervene. After a daylong meeting last week, Vincent said the matter was resolved and that umpires’ cases would continue to be handled by league presidents.

But White wanted a stronger show of support from Vincent and reportedly considered quitting.

Owners termed the 90-minute National League meeting as “peaceful,” despite reports that White remains unhappy. However, a showdown may be approaching on another subject--American League owners’ desire to share in the NL’s $190-million expansion fee windfall.

Giles said NL owners remain opposed to sharing the $190 million they will split when two franchises are chosen by next September. The teams won’t begin play until 1993.

AL owners did not split their expansion fees when Toronto and Seattle joined in 1977 and, Giles said: “We don’t think they should get any. . . . It should be done as in the past. There’s never been a split before.”

AL President Bobby Brown said the league sent NL owners data on the financial impact of adding two franchises “to see what they think about it.” The AL hasn’t formally asked to share.

Meanwhile, club owners will decide today whether to approve Robert Nederlander as general partner of the New York Yankees. Nederlander met with the ownership committee for several hours Wednesday.

No owners have voiced opposition to the theater producer’s appointment.

Nederlander must be approved by three-fourths of AL owners and a majority of NL owners to replace George Steinbrenner, who was forced to resign Aug. 20 after Vincent’s investigation into his dealings with self-described gambler Howard Spira.

In other developments:

--Last month’s 7 1/2-hour rain delay for a Texas Ranger-Chicago White Sox game was discussed in the AL meeting, but Brown said, “We decided to leave that alone and hope it never happens again.”

--AL teams will be discouraged from supplying champagne or other alcohol for postgame celebrations by championship teams. Brown said private parties would be permitted outside of camera range.