NFL: Indians’ Jacobs Wants to Buy Browns

Cleveland Indians owner Richard Jacobs is interested in buying Cleveland’s expansion football team, the NFL confirmed Friday.

“The NFL has been aware of Mr. Jacobs’ interest in buying the Browns,” spokeswoman Leslie Hammond said. “We will speak with him and to other ownership groups in the upcoming months.”

Jacobs has publicly denied he wants to buy the expansion team awarded this week.

The Chicago Tribune reported Friday that Jacobs, a millionaire whose ownership of the Indians has resulted in the most successful period in the club’s history, planned to issue stock in the Indians, perhaps to raise money to buy the Browns.

Jacobs, 72, a businessman whose net worth is estimated at $450 million, would maintain the controlling interest in the team.

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Teams notified players Friday this may be the final year of the designated hitter, prompting an angry response from the players’ association.

Management negotiator Randy Levine emphasized owners have not made a final decision on the DH, which has been used by the American League since 1973. Levine said owners sent the notification only because baseball’s labor agreement requires one year’s notice for a unilateral change to the playing rules.

The fate of the DH is tied to the future of interleague play. Under the current labor agreement, interleague play ends after this season, but owners want to extend it.

“The message,” union head Donald Fehr wrote in a letter to Levine, “cannot be mistaken: If we do not conclude our interleague play discussions in a matter satisfactory to the clubs, the clubs reserve their right (if any exists) to unilaterally eliminate the DH rule. . . . Are the memories of your clients so short that the clubs are willing, if not anxious, to go out of their way to perpetuate an adversarial relationship with the players? . . . I would have thought that we have had enough threat and counter threat in this industry.”

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Baltimore displaced the New York Yankees as baseball’s biggest spender and is projected to have the highest luxury-tax bill at $3,080,439, according to figures complied by the owners’ Player Relations Committee.

The Orioles have a payroll of $74,303,497, according to the figures, and are followed by Atlanta at $71,639,725, Boston at $71,318,403, the Yankees at $70,318,403 and Cleveland at $66,850,303.

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Rejecting a $20.4-million, two-year extension, Red Sox first baseman Mo Vaughn said he is planning to file for free agency after the season. Vaughn said there will be no more dialogue with Boston until after the season. . . . Cal Ripken Jr. yelled at a heckler after the fan complained that the Baltimore Orioles’ star three times skipped over his 5-year-old son during autograph sessions. “What he said was wrong and I didn’t handle it the way I wanted to handle it, so I was wrong. I learned a lesson,” Ripken said shortly after he signed autographs for 75 minutes after the game against Montreal at Jupiter, Fla. . . . Kansas City Royal ace Kevin Appier was put on the 60-day disabled list, three days after undergoing successful arthroscopic surgery on his pitching shoulder. . . . Cleveland Indian pitcher Melido Perez retired rather than accept a demotion to minor league camp. Perez, 32, was 78-85 with a 4.17 earned-run average in nine seasons with Kansas City, the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. . . . Brady Anderson has a chipped bone in his left hand, but the Oriole center fielder still is expected to start in Tuesday’s opener.