Fielder Still Bitter Over Treatment

Cecil Fielder joined the Cleveland Indians on Friday, still simmering over the Angels’ decision to designate him for assignment in the midst of a fairly productive season.

“How many guys with my numbers are on the waiver wire?” said Fielder, who made his first appearance for Cleveland at first base in the seventh inning of the Indians’ 15-3 loss to Baltimore.

“I don’t think it was just what was happening on the field. And I don’t understand that, because I’ve always been the way I am.”

Fielder, 34, was batting .241 with 17 homers and 68 RBIs in 103 games before the Angels designated him for assignment Aug. 5. Part of the reason might have been his .244 average with runners in scoring position. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Fielder batted .169.

Fielder has other ideas about why the Angels put him on waivers. He says his agents, Jim Bronner and Bob Gilhooly, had a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Angels General Manager Bill Bavasi regarding incentive clauses that would increase the value of his $2.8 million contract. Fielder wouldn’t say what the incentives were, but he said he was closing in on some of them.

*

New York lawyer Miles Prentice III appears to have the inside track to becoming the new owner of the Kansas City Royals.

Prentice, who has persuaded several prominent Kansas citizens to join his investment group, spoke to the board of directors who have run the club since since the death of founder Ewing Kauffman in 1993.

There appears now to be only one group competing with Prentice--a partnership between Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and Western Resources, a utility company headquartered in Topeka, Kan. A group headed by former Royals star George Brett “has fallen by the wayside,” a source close to the board said.

Prentice is apparently the only bidder who has come close to the minimum price of $75 million which the board set at the beginning of the bidding process. The Hunt-Western Resources group has acknowledged it offered only $27 million up front and another $25 million if extensive, taxpayer-funded improvements are made to Kauffman Stadium.

*

The Minnesota Twins finally settled their differences with their landlord and signed a new two-year lease.

The deal is essentially the same as it was when the Twins and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission agreed to it last month. The most serious issue that kept it from being finalized was when the team would begin collecting the extra revenue promised in the agreement.

The commission agreed to give back the 10% admissions tax on each ticket, but wanted that plan to begin next season, the first year of the new lease. The Twins wanted to begin collecting that money this season.

The commission won that disagreement, and the Twins will wait until 1999 to begin receiving that money, which will amount to about $1 million a year.

The lease guarantees that the Twins will remain in Minnesota at least through the 2000 season. There are three one-year options that could extend it through 2003.

It also includes a 30-day period in which the Twins have agreed to seek a local buyer. That window originally was to have opened when the agreement was reached last month, but Twins owner Carl Pohlad agreed to extend it until Sept. 14 because of the delay.

Interested investors have that time to provide the Twins with personal and financial background information. They must also make a commitment to keep the team in Minnesota whether or not a new stadium is built.