Owners Will Meet, but Vincent Won’t : Baseball: They call Sept. 3 meeting, though the commissioner calls it illegal.

The 28 major league baseball owners will meet Sept. 3 in Chicago to discuss the status of Commissioner Fay Vincent, who said Monday that it is doubtful he will attend.

“Given what I wrote in my letter (to the owners), given my contention that this is an illegal meeting, I can’t imagine that I’ll go,” Vincent said, when reached at his New York apartment Monday night.

“It’s a complicated situation, and there’s nothing else I can say at this time.”

Angel owner Jackie Autry said more.

“I think a majority of the clubs are dissatisfied with the commissioner’s performance and his ability to provide leadership,” she said, agreeing with the view expressed Sunday by Dodger owner Peter O’Malley.

“I think the best way to put it is that he doesn’t have the confidence of the owners to lead us into the ‘90s,” she said of Vincent.

“I mean, despite what some in the media have said regarding our desire to have a weak commissioner, Peter Ueberroth and Bart Giamatti hardly fit that mold. We want a quality individual we can respect and support, and Fay hasn’t generated that with a majority of the clubs.”

Under the terms of the Major League Agreement, a commissioner cannot be fired, nor can his powers be diminished, during his term of office.

However, the agreement also gives the league presidents permission to call a joint owners meeting if the commissioner fails to schedule one five days after being requested to do so.

Bobby Brown, the American League president, and Bill White, the National League president, scheduled the meeting after asking Vincent to do so--at the urging of a majority of owners--one week earlier.

“The commissioner has obviously received counsel to the effect that we don’t have the right to hold a meeting, but the Major League Agreement says we do,” Autry said, adding that Vincent won’t be missed if he doesn’t attend, although the commissioner normally chairs any joint owners meeting.

“I don’t think it was our intention for him to attend in the first place,” she said. “Under the terms of the agreement, when the owners meet to elect or reelect a commissioner or evaluate his performance, as we are doing in this case, that person is excluded from the meeting.”

Vincent has hired Brendan Sullivan Jr., a Washington lawyer, to represent him in case the owners take “inappropriate action.” He wrote in his letter Thursday to the owners that he will not resign and will not leave if illegally voted out.

A National League owner said Sunday that it is the hope of more than 20 owners that Vincent can be influenced to step down. If not, he said, “We will have to decide if we have the heart for a legal fight.”

Autry said she “could not assume” that a vote on Vincent will be taken at the Sept. 3 meeting.

“I think it’s more a situation where the clubs want to discuss what’s happening and the commissioner’s role and come to some conclusion,” she said.

O’Malley agreed. He said Monday that Vincent’s possible absence “would not be a factor.” He added that he could not “prejudge” the possibility of a vote on the commissioner.

“I think it’s a situation where the timing is right for a frank discussion,” he said.