BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT

The major league executive council is expected to suspend Cincinnati Red owner Marge Schott for at least a year today unless she voluntarily gives up daily control of the team. The council met in Philadelphia last Wednesday and gave Schott until today to make a decision.

Attorneys for the sides have met throughout the week to discuss the situation, and the council is expected to hold a conference call today to either discipline Schott or accept terms of her daily withdrawal, in which case team controller John Allen is likely to assume responsibility for the team’s daily operation.

ESPN reported that former Angel president Richard Brown and former Pittsburgh Pirates president Mark Sauer are also among candidates to head the Red operation if Schott withdraws, but Brown said he has not been contacted and “it would be premature for me to express interest or a lack of interest until the situation with Marge is resolved. I think ESPN was doing a little speculating based on Mark and my possible availability.”

Schott was suspended for the 1993 season because of ethnic and racial slurs. Her recent comments in an ESPN interview praising the early years of Adolph Hitler as German chancellor and subsequent ethnic and gender slurs in a Sports Illustrated article led to the current situation.