Sale of Dodgers Nears

The final countdown to Thursday’s vote by major league owners on the sale of the Dodgers to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. begins tonight with a meeting of the ruling executive council. American and National League team owners will meet separately Wednesday, then jointly on Thursday.

The sale requires majority approval in the American League and three-fourths approval in the 16-team National. Thus, five negative votes in the National would kill it.

Major league officials continued Monday to endorse Dodger owner Peter O’Malley’s contention that the sale will be approved. Some said that only the San Diego Padres and/or the Padres and Atlanta Braves may vote against it, but some hedged their forecasts.

“It’s very close,” said one top official. “Nothing is ever easy, but I’m hopeful [it will be approved].”

The concern regarding Murdoch’s acquisition is basically four-fold and complex:

* Will he spend wildly to build a winner?

* Will he follow baseball’s international TV regulations?

* Will he eventually offer 50% of the Dodgers to John Malone, CEO of Tele-Communications Inc., and a partner with Murdoch in Fox/Liberty Sports.

* Will he use his cable contracts with 22 of the 30 teams to affect local revenue streams?

Padre owner John Moores has voiced the loudest concern, saying he was inclined to vote against Murdoch, terming the Dodgers under Murdoch, “that monster . . . to the north.”

“We’ve said about as much as we should say,” Padre President Larry Lucchino said Monday. “We’ll leave it now to internal discussions [among the owners].”

Lucchino added, however, that he thought it noteworthy that the ownership committee report on the factual issues of the sale was distributed without a recommendation--pro or con.

“My impression is that those reports always come from committee with a recommendation,” Lucchino said.

However, a report on the sale of the Toronto Blue Jays was distributed to owners at the same time, also without a recommendation.

At various times, the Florida Marlins, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros have been portrayed as opposing the sale, but a ranking National League official said he expected all to vote for it, and Astro owner Drayton McLane has publicly said that he would.

The San Francisco Giants have been linked to the Padres in opposition, but Executive Vice President Larry Baer said the Giants are still undecided.

“We haven’t had a chance to sit down with [the ownership committee report], but we will before we get to Florida,” he said of managing general partner Peter Magowan and himself. “This shouldn’t be misconstrued at this point as the Giants having an issue with Murdoch or the Dodgers. We just think every ownership transfer should be scrutinized carefully.”

The Braves have long been considered in opposition because of the adversarial relationship between Murdoch and Atlanta owner Ted Turner, but their cable properties are so intertwined in so many cities that some baseball officials believe a quid pro quo arrangement exists and that the Braves will cast a symbolic no vote only if it doesn’t affect the sale.

“There has been no orchestrated campaign [to defeat it],” a National League owner said. “In fact, [the sale] has been sitting there for so long that there hasn’t been a lot of buzz about it. But there will be in the next few days as people read the report, talk about it in our meetings and form an opinion.”

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* DODGER SETBACK: The outfield situation became more muddled when Todd Hollandsworth re-injured his left hamstring. C8