Baseball Ready for a Vote

Major league owners are expected to vote by phone Wednesday on a 1998 realignment concept, but significant reorganization of the American and National leagues is not anticipated until 1999 or later, officials said Monday.

Rather than the radical plan that would have 15 teams switching leagues, or the modified version under which five or seven would, it is anticipated that only one team might switch, although an American League executive expressed caution.

“This has had so many twists and turns that it’s still difficult to predict, but I think we’ll do something on a far smaller scale as a first step now, and continue to work on a larger package for 1999,” the executive said.

It’s anticipated that only the Kansas City Royals or Milwaukee Brewers will switch leagues for 1998. One of them will move from the American League Central to the National League Central, creating a six-team division, officials said.

The Arizona Diamondbacks will be in the National League West and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the American League East. The Detroit Tigers are expected to move from the AL East to the AL Central, making room for the Devil Rays in the East and replacing either the Royals or Brewers in the Central.

The National League will have 16 teams and the American 14. Both leagues will play unbalanced schedules, with teams playing more games within their division than without.

This limited realignment would mean that the Angels, Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s, who were headed for a new division in the National League, would remain in the American.

That would be a victory for the players’ union, which has argued against leaving the West Coast without an American League presence, and for Peter Magowan, owner of the San Francisco Giants, who threatened legal action if the A’s moved into what he considers to be his exclusive National League territory.

“There’s going to be a lot of disappointed people who think a larger realignment makes sense from a travel, schedule and rivalry standpoint,” the AL executive said. “But you can’t force people to go where they don’t want to go.”

The executive criticized acting Commissioner Bud Selig for failing to act assertively in bringing the issue to a vote quicker.

“A lot of things die of their own weight,” the executive said. “Bud doesn’t move quick enough. He’s a consensus builder. It’s his strength and weakness, but he gave the negative voters a chance to develop some momentum by failing to act quicker.”