Report Said to Strengthen Commissioner

Major league baseball owners will begin a two-day meeting in Phoenix today, with the possibility that the ruling executive council or full ownership will vote to approve the completed report of the committee restructuring the commissioner’s office.

The council will meet today, with the joint owners’ meeting scheduled Thursday morning.

An owner who has seen the report, which was five months in the making, said it strengthens the office and gives the commissioner even more authority to operate in baseball’s best interests.

The report is also believed to give the commissioner authority over labor negotiations, although it is likely that the authority of Richard Ravitch, president of the owners’ Player Relations Committee and chief negotiator in the reopened collective bargaining negotiations with the players’ union, will be “grandfathered” in the event a commissioner is hired before the talks are completed.