BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Zeroing In on a New Commissioner

As the Marge Schott controversy lingers and baseball wobbles through its fifth month of operating without a leader, Peter O’Malley, president of the Dodgers and a member of the committee that is restructuring the commissioner’s office, said that group is finally in “the ninth inning” of its deliberations.

O’Malley said he was hopeful that a final recommendation could be made at an owners’ meeting in Phoenix on Feb. 17 or at another gathering in the same city March 3-4.

He declined to reveal details, but it is believed that the threat of antitrust litigation by Congress has ensured that most of the commissioner’s power to act in baseball’s best interest will remain intact.

“The committee is united in wanting a strong, independent commissioner,” said O’Malley, who says the new commissioner will come from outside baseball because no owner or high-ranking club official will take the job--a seemingly no-win situation no matter how it’s structured.

The search committee, not to be confused with the restructuring or format committees, has already asked a company specializing in executive searches for assistance, but no one will be hired until the restructuring is completed, and only a few names have surfaced.

Outgoing Secretary of the Navy Sean O’Keefe has been floating his availability. Possibilities from within baseball, despite O’Malley’s belief, include Atlanta Brave President Stan Kasten, Texas Ranger General Partner George W. Bush and Toronto Blue Jay President Paul Beeston, who is now presenting a more commissioner-like appearance.

Beeston never wore socks until he recently received a pair from New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner with a note that read: “Now that you are world champions, dress like one.”

Bud Selig, president of the Milwaukee Brewers and chairman of baseball’s ruling executive council, says that the commissioner could be hired by early April, but maintains he is not a candidate. His attempt to govern by consensus and committee has not been a total success.

Sources in the commissioner’s office say it has been difficult to get decisions on normal operating matters, and the resignation of deputy commissioner Steve Greenberg, who claimed that he was left out of the decision-making loop after the forced resignation of Commissioner Fay Vincent, has left a bad feeling among several owners, including some Selig allies in the Vincent coup.

Selig, sources say, perceived the respected Greenberg as strictly a “Vincent man” and was intent on preventing him from interfering with the Selig agenda or generating possible support as a commissioner candidate.

That treatment is said to have angered, among others, Chicago White Sox co-owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who had joined Selig in planning the Vincent ouster but was among those who admired Greenberg and recommended that he resign rather than continue being ignored by the executive council chairman.

Greenberg’s resignation is effective in April, but a group of owners, including O’Malley, Reinsdorf, Bush and Fred Wilpon of the New York Mets, would like to see him remain in the sport as a possible club president or replacement for the retiring Bill White as National League president.

Baseball, however, will be under pressure to hire another minority in that position, and an attempt will be made to have Bob Watson, assistant general manager of the Houston Astros, take the job.

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Out of it: Reinsdorf, one of baseball’s major power brokers, has spent most of the winter at his Arizona home and maintains he is curtailing his influence, turned off by the latest wave of free-agent signings and the reluctance to draw a battle line over arbitration.

“I decided I had been spending too much time on industry matters without enough to show for it,” Reinsdorf said. “There are not enough clubs who have shown me they are interested in solving the problems.

“I haven’t seen any demonstration that very many clubs have interest except in the short-term interest of their own clubs.”

In the aftermath of a disappointing season, the White Sox have taken a media beating in Chicago because of their refusal to wheel and deal.

They have signed only outfielder Ellis Burks and pitcher Dave Stieb, both physical risks, to conditional, $500,000 contracts, though they could receive a major public relations boost if Bo Jackson’s new hip holds up and he is able to play on a regular basis.

In the meantime, they are using Jackson as the advertising vehicle in a “Hip Season Ticket Plan” that offers 20 games for $160.

“We’re having some fun with the most celebrated hip in the country, but we’re not making any promises about Bo being back,” marketing vice president Rob Gallas said.

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Changes: A format committee headed by Boston Red Sox President John Harrington continues to study a variety of options aimed at invigorating attendance and the late-season races.

As part of the study, the committee has sent an eight-page questionnaire to about 2,000 selected randomly and to about 8,000 season ticket-holders throughout the country.

The questionnaire doesn’t acknowledge that baseball has problems, but states that the major leagues are “looking at ways to make late-season games more meaningful for the fans and to create more exciting postseason play.”

It asks if fans would like:

--Two teams from each division in the playoffs.

--Three divisions within each league, with the division winners and a wild-card team from each league in the playoffs.

--Realigning teams within each league.

--Shifting teams from one league to the other.

--Interleague play involving 10 to 28 games a year.

--Eliminating the designated hitter, expanding it to the National League or allowing its use by NL teams in interleague games in American League parks.

--More day or night games on weekends or during the week.

The early response indicates that young fans want change while older fans favor the status quo. Chairman Selig said he is hopeful that the committee will be ready with a strong recommendation by either the mid-February or early-March owners’ meetings.

Any changes would require approval of the players’ union and support of the TV networks. CBS Sports president Neal Pilson and his NBC counterpart, Dick Ebersol, told owners at a November meeting in Phoenix that they weren’t interested in expanded playoffs.

“The last time the playoffs sold out was five or six years ago,” said Ken Schanzer, executive vice president of NBC Sports. “If you can’t sell what you’ve got, why would you want more?

“I mean, we think that in terms of maintaining interest all the way to the end, it would make a lot of sense for them (to have more teams involved).

“But I don’t think the networks would buy it. I think (an expanded playoff) would become a cable or local (TV) property.”

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Costly: The Braves’ consecutive pennants have carried an inevitable price tag. The payroll went from $22 million to almost $33 million last year, and is expected to reach $40 million this year.

The Braves, of course, did not have to sign Greg Maddux for five years at $28.5 million, but they couldn’t resist adding the National League’s Cy Young Award winner to a rotation of Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, John Smoltz and Pete Smith.

Glavine subsequently signed a five-year contract for $20 million; Smoltz is seeking a $2-million raise to $3.5 million in arbitration, and Smith wants almost a $1-million raise to $1.29 million through that process.

The Braves face eight arbitration cases after avoiding two others by giving outfielder Ron Gant a $1.1-million raise to $3.7 million and outfielder David Justice a $1.2-million raise to $1.7 million.

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No strings: Richard Ravitch, president of the owners’ Player Relations Committee, maintains that his no-lockout recommendation carries “no conditions, ultimatums or threats” and he will not ask the union for a no-strike pledge.

“We’re taking the high road,” he said of the reopened labor negotiations in which he hopes to implement a revenue-sharing system with the players for 1994. “Besides, the players have no reason to strike.”

Under terms of the talks, the only negotiable issues are compensation and free agency. The bargaining agreement expires next Dec. 31. Ravitch has asked the union to move that date to Nov. 1, so that next year’s player contracts will fall under the terms of the new system, if there is one.

What if the owners are without an agreement in October?

“It will be worse for the players than the owners,” Ravitch said, referring to his belief that revenues will begin declining in 1994 and that the current system won’t work amid those conditions.

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Job market: Ravitch claims that 50% of the salary compensation is going to 14% of the players, but the prediction that the middle class is on the way out--that half of this year’s free-agent crop of more than 150 players wouldn’t find jobs--hasn’t happened.

A number of noted players, reliever Jeff Reardon and infielder Dick Schofield among them, have had to sign minor league contracts pending roster and spring developments, but most of the 150 have found work.

The biggest names among those still looking are probably catcher Mike Scioscia, outfielder Tom Brunansky and reliever Jeff Russell.

Russell, who has saved 30 or more games in three of the last four years, including 30 last year with the Oakland A’s and the Rangers, is attracting interest from the Braves and the Red Sox, but an elbow injury suffered in 1990, when he saved only 10 games, seems to have hurt his contract chances. The process, Russell said, has left him “soured enough” that he hopes to pitch two more years and then “get the hell out.”

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New role: Reardon, baseball’s all-time save leader trying to rebound from last October’s World Series problems with the Braves and prove that he has enough velocity left, will be employed by the Cincinnati Reds as a setup man for Rob Dibble.

The erratic Dibble said he is excited by the prospect of having a proven veteran to lean on--both on and off the field.

“Rick Mahler was a mentor to me (when I first came up), and I look at Reardon the same way,” Dibble said.

Reardon will have a new look as well as a new role. Club policy requires him to shave the beard he has worn since 1980.

“The only reason I grew it is that I didn’t like shaving,” he said. “I mean, this might be a bigger shock for my son than me. He was born in October of ’80 and has never seen me without it.”