Owners to Approve Selig

Major league owners will meet in Chicago on July 9 to approve Bud Selig as permanent commissioner.

Selig, who has been acting commissioner since Fay Vincent resigned on Sept. 7, 1992, requires 75% approval from the 30 clubs, but sources said Tuesday that he is certain to receive that and more.

“I have nothing to add to what I said last week,” Selig said Tuesday, referring to a statement in which he acknowledged increased pressure from fellow owners to take the job but said he had not accepted it yet.

“Bud wouldn’t be calling for a vote unless he had made a decision and knew the votes were there,” a baseball official said. “He’s been under tremendous pressure from other owners to accept the job.”

Although owner Jerry McMorris of the Colorado Rockies has headed a search committee to find a successor to Vincent, speculation has long centered on Selig’s ultimately acquiescing. McMorris, according to sources, had narrowed his list of potential candidates to four but owners have been wary of hiring an outsider and had convinced Selig that no one else could get the 75% approval.

A consensus builder, Selig has overseen a series of innovative changes as acting commissioner--realignment of the leagues and divisions, an extended playoff system, introduction of the wild-card playoff team and interleague play, and increased revenue sharing among the clubs. There has also been comparative labor peace since the long dispute between owners and players was resolved in November 1996.

The hiring of Paul Beeston, a friend and former Toronto Blue Jay president, to serve as baseball’s chief operating officer in New York helped convince Selig that the responsibilities of commissioner could be shared and that he would not have to be in New York full time, sources said.

Selig, who has been operating out of his County Stadium office as owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, is expected to put the club in a blind trust, with Wendy Selig-Prieb, his daughter and the club’s counsel, becoming president. Selig, sources said, is considering opening a satellite office in Chicago or Milwaukee, which would be his headquarters.