Reggie Jackson, Partner, Seek Phoenix Team

Former baseball star Reggie Jackson and his former agent Gary Walker are attempting to assemble a group of local and out-of-state investors to become part of Phoenix’s effort to get a major-league baseball expansion franchise.

Walker, currently a partner with Jackson in United Development Co. Inc. of Tempe and a real-estate syndicator, has met with local sports officials and potential investors over the past week in a last-ditch attempt to keep the Phoenix area in the competition for one of two National League expansion teams that will be awarded next year.

The effort looked like a long shot amid the controversy surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday issue and after Martin Stone, owner of the minor-league Phoenix Firebirds, began to pursue efforts to be part of a group trying to buy the Montreal Expos,

Walker said that he regards the Phoenix effort as a long shot and that he and Jackson are also doing long-range planning to acquire an existing franchise.

Walker said he also plans to discuss the prospects of buying the Firebirds from Stone to lay the long-range groundwork for a future major-league acquisition.

Walker would not identify potential investors in a baseball team but said most of them are or will be from Arizona.

He said Jackson would be an investor in the group and perhaps the team’s general manager.

The group would be under a tight deadline to raise the $95-million franchise fee. The National League also has said it will announce its “short list” of sites by the end of the year.