Yankees Getting Serious About Moving

Will New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner say goodbye to the Bronx?

In his strongest statements yet about a possible departure from Yankee Stadium, Steinbrenner told The New York Times that a consulting firm’s reports on the Yankees’ future home indicate the team should move.

Yankee Stadium opened in 1923.

“The Bronx has not been knocked off the list, but every report that comes in seems to point that way,” Steinbrenner said. “The report says you got to move; you got to get out.”

The New York Observer reported that Steinbrenner and developer Donald Trump were uniting to plan a new home for the Yankees on Manhattan’s West Side, but neither would comment on the matter.

Plans for keeping the Yankees in the Bronx reportedly would include improved parking facilities and a train station linking the northern suburbs.

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Cincinnati Reds’ owner Marge Schott, forced by baseball to relinquish daily operation of her team for remarks deemed racially and ethnically offensive, is said to be angry about the way the club is being operated in the interim.

Schott’s choice to operate the Reds in her absence, controller John Allen, has pleased fans during his two weeks, offering promotions that included discounted tickets, allowing fans to run the bases, and having bands playing at Riverfront Stadium.

Schott is reportedly angry with Allen about paying the bands and discounting the tickets.

Schott designated Allen to run the team for 60 days. By Aug. 12, she is to propose someone to run the Reds for the remainder of her forced absence.

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Seeking to secure the future of a “treasured community asset,” the Bradley Foundation offered a $20-million loan toward construction of a new stadium for the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers have struggled for months to obtain their $90-million share toward the cost of a $250-million retractable-roof stadium with luxury boxes they say they need to survive in Milwaukee.

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According to a draft schedule, the Dodgers and Angels will play a two-game series at Dodger Stadium beginning June 16, and another in Anaheim Sept. 1-2, the same two days the San Francisco Giants play in Oakland against the Athletics. Those teams will start their regular-season rivalry in San Francisco on July 2-3.

The New York Mets will play a three-game series at Yankee Stadium starting June 16, the same night the Chicago Cubs open a three-game series against the White Sox at Comiskey Park.