Major Choices: Miami, Denver : NL expansion: Committee recommends those two cities to owners, and approval is expected soon.

Denver and Miami all but clinched spots in the National League when the expansion committee recommended Monday that they join the league in 1993.

The cities and owners still must be approved by the eight-man major league ownership committee and by both leagues. Approval is expected to be routine, although probably not this week.

“They obviously were the two most attractive choices,” Commissioner Fay Vincent said in Santa Monica, where owners are scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday. “That speaks for itself.”

Miami will be the first major league team in Florida and Denver will be the first in the Mountain time zone. The cities beat out four other finalists: Buffalo, N.Y.; Orlando, Fla.; St. Petersburg, Fla., and Washington.

“We’re obviously rejoicing,” Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez said. “It kind of gives a stamp of certification as a major city in the United States.”

The Miami team would play in Joe Robbie Stadium, which is midway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale and recently was renovated for baseball. Denver would play in Mile High Stadium during its first two seasons and move into a planned 43,000-seat Coors Field in 1995. The additions will give the NL 14 teams, matching the American League.

“We only celebrated for about five minutes,” Denver Mayor Federico Pena said before going to a meeting on the proposed team’s stadium lease. “I’d say we’re rounding third base and heading for home, but we must continue to run with the same determination for the rest of the way.”

The franchises cost $95 million each and will be the first new major league teams since Seattle and Toronto joined the American League in 1977. They will be the first new NL teams since Montreal and San Diego joined in 1969.

“We believe we have selected the best two cities,” said Pittsburgh Pirates’ chairman Douglas Danforth, the chairman of the expansion committee. “There were others that could have supported major league baseball, but we’re confident we have the best two.”

The four-man expansion committee--NL president Bill White, Danforth, New York Mets’ president Fred Wilpon and Philadelphia Phillies’ president Bill Giles--made its final decision at a meeting in New York on May 29.

The decision was kept secret from other owners to prevent leaks, but that caused a snag. When the expansion committee refused last week to reveal its choices to the larger ownership committee, the ownership group said it wouldn’t be able to complete its review by Wednesday, the date originally set for a vote.

Over the weekend, the NL reversed course and mailed the recommendation to all 26 owners. The choices became known Monday as teams received the information.

“A full presentation will be made at the National League and American League meetings on June 12,” the NL said in a statement. “Under the circumstances, the ownership committee will also place the matter on its June 12 agenda. Members of the committee are now able to limit their review to two cities and, hopefully, will be able to expedite their consideration of the two ownership groups and complete their deliberations on June 12.”

St. Louis Cardinals’ president Fred Kuhlmann, chairman of the ownership committee, said he is “hoping we will be able to” complete his committee’s work on Wednesday. If the ownership committee does approve Denver and Miami, Kuhlmann said the timing of a final vote by the leagues is up to the expansion committee.

“We’ll try to do our job so their road is clear,” he said. “Whether we’ll be able to accomplish it remains to be seen.”

The cities need approval from nine NL owners and eight AL owners. If it does not happen at this week’s quarterly meetings, it could take place in a telephone conference call or a mail ballot.

“I think the recommendation will be accepted,” Vincent said. “I believe the ownership committee will vote on it. I still don’t know if the leagues will. I suspect not. I don’t think the leagues will vote this week.”

Neither team has decided on a nickname. Denver has not even decided if the team would be called Denver or Colorado, and Miami hasn’t decided from among Miami, Florida or South Florida. Formally, the teams are known as the Colorado Baseball Partnership and South Florida Big League Baseball Inc.

“Obviously, we’re very elated that we’re one of the two cities recommended,” said John A. Antonucci, managing general partner of the Colorado Baseball Partnership. “But at the same time, we’re cautious. We don’t anticipate any problems with the final vote. But it is one more hurdle to overcome. Fans in Denver, Colorado and the whole region have wanted baseball for over 30 years. They deserve it, and now it looks like they’re going to get it.”

H. Wayne Huizenga, the potential owner for Miami and the chairman of Blockbuster Entertainment Corp., said he found out on Friday.

“While we have a year and a half to go before we throw the first ball out, there’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “The sooner we could get the vote the happier I would be.”

Suarez believes Miami’s large Latin population helped the city with the expansion committee.

“We have the Caribbean, which produces probably half of your players, and Panama, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela are all very important producers of talent,” he said. “With all due respect to St. Petersburg, these people (Latin Americans) probably think that it’s a Russian city. And as for Orlando, they might think it’s the place to go to Disney World, but otherwise it’s just somebody’s first name, like Orlando Lopez or something.”

The teams will get their first players in June 1992 when they participate in the amateur draft of high school and college players. They will get major leaguers from an expansion draft following the 1992 season.

Each current major league club will contribute three players to the expansion pool, Vincent ruled last week. He also decided the AL will receive $42 million of the $190 million in expansion money.

A Look at Baseball’s Expansion Sites

A look at the two cities the expansion committee has recommended for National League expansion teams in 1993. Buffalo, Washington, Orlando and St. Petersburg-Tampa were not selected. 1. DENVER

Metropolitan Population Ranking: 22.

TV Market Ranking: 19.

Stadium: Team would share Mile High Stadium with Denver Broncos until 1995. Construction of a 40,000-seat, downtown stadium, to be called Coors Field, has been approved by voters in the form of a sales tax.

Owner: Colorado Baseball Partnership, heavily financed by Coors Brewery and headed by John Antonucci of Youngstown, Ohio, president of the Superior Beverage Group, a wholesale enterprise that began as a family-owned grocery in 1920.

Comment: A $30-million commitment by Coors at a time when the partnership seemed to be deteriorating recharged the Denver bid. The National League sees it as a foothold in the untapped Rocky Mountains, with unlimited attendance and TV possibilities stretching from Canada to Mexico, and a geographical bridge to the West Coast.

2. MIAMI

Metropolitan Population Ranking: 11.

TV Market Ranking: 16.

Stadium: Joe Robbie, renovated for baseball and seating about 50,000.

Owner: South Florida Big League Baseball Inc., headed by H. Wayne Huizenga, chairman of Blockbuster Entertainment Corp, the nationwide video chain with 1990 revenue of $1.1 billion. Huizenga also owns 50% of the stadium and 15% of the Miami Dolphins.

Comment: The NL, initially attracted to Miami’s one-man ownership, is now said to be concerned by a recent dip in Blockbuster stock from $15 to $7 a share and is believed to be re-evaluating Huizenga’s financial status. The area’s booming growth is an obvious plus, but an open stadium in the heat and humidity of a Florida summer could be considered a drawback.