NL Realignment on Hold : Baseball: Union and television networks require schedule to be set before courts can rule on Vincent’s mandate.

Fay Vincent, the besieged baseball commissioner, will continue to press his fight for National League realignment through the courts, but on Monday he basically abandoned the attempt to make it happen in 1993.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Greenberg said that the commissioner has given National League President Bill White permission to issue a draft of the 1993 schedule without the realignment Vincent ordered on July 6.

Greenberg said realignment is still possible next season, but not likely. He cited complicating factors for the decision to issue a schedule without the realignment Vincent ordered under his “best interest of baseball” authority.

Among those factors:

--Pressure from the Major League Players Assn., which must approve the schedule and would not further extend the deadline for receiving it after having done so once, from July 1 to Aug. 1.

--Pressure from CBS and ESPN, eager to make their 1993 plans.

--Pending litigation, which could leave the question of Vincent’s ability to mandate realignment unresolved until October, at the earliest.

Vincent ordered the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals to move to the West Division with the new Colorado Rockies, allowing the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves to move to the East Division with the new Florida Marlins.

The Cubs sued in federal court and got a preliminary injunction, blocking the order. The commissioner’s appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals will not be heard until Sept. 30, making it impossible for Vincent to reorder realignment for 1993, even if the injunction is lifted.

Greenberg would not comment on that but said the possible move of the San Francisco Giants to Florida further complicated the schedule-drafting process.

“Everyone has been pressing for a schedule--the clubs, the networks, the union,” he said. “Short of facing a grievance (from the union), we have to operate on the facts as they are today, which means the Cubs and Cardinals are still in the East.”

Said Don Fehr, executive director of the players’ association: “Absent our agreement and the pending litigation, I haven’t seen how (realignment for 1993) has been possible for some time.”

National League Vice President Katy Feeney, who heads the scheduling committee, said she hopes to have a schedule to the union and the clubs by late next week.

Sources said that the National League will copy the American League’s schedule format for 1993. Each team will play the six other teams in its division 13 times, and the seven teams in the other division 12 times each. National League clubs currently play each division rival 18 times, and each team from the other division 12 times.

If the sale-transfer of the Giants is approved, three Eastern time zone teams will play in the National League West next year, the Reds, Braves and Giants. Greenberg said he doesn’t think it feasible that the owners will be ready to vote on the Giants’ sale at their quarterly meeting Sept. 9 and 10 in St. Louis.

The owners will meet Thursday in Chicago to evaluate Vincent’s powers and performance, but neither Vincent nor Greenberg will attend what they consider an illegal meeting.