Report Says A’s Are Seeking Move

The Oakland Athletics have presented major league baseball with a proposal to move the team to Silicon Valley, according to the Contra Costa Times.

The paper said team owners want tentative approval from Commissioner Bud Selig before working further with a group that wants to build a privately financed stadium near Great America amusement park in Santa Clara.

The A’s lease at Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland expires after next season.

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Stephen Bronfman, the son of Montreal Expo founder Charles Bronfman, has been asked by the team’s limited partners to buy out controlling owner Jeffrey Loria, Montreal La Presse reported.

If he refuses, the limited partners probably will sell their shares to the New York art dealer.

Loria bought control of the team in December from Claude Brochu and doubled the team’s payroll to about $35 million. But the Expos failed to sell broadcast rights for television and English radio, and the downtown stadium project--a key to the organization’s resurgence--appears to be at a standstill.

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Tomo Ohka, from Japan, and Sun Woo Kim, from Korea, two top Boston Red Sox pitching prospects mentioned in trade speculation involving Sammy Sosa, have been suspended for five days after two altercations.

The pitchers, who are at triple-A Pawtucket, got into a pushing-and-shoving match in the dugout during a rain delay at Durham, N.C., on Wednesday night. There was another confrontation Thursday.

Neither the team nor the Red Sox organization would say what the altercations were about.

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Chicago Cub pitcher Kerry Wood is learning that there’s no guarantee of success.

Wood struggled Friday in his eighth start, giving up five runs on four hits and five walks over four innings. He got a no-decision when the Cubs rallied for a 9-8 victory over the Montreal Expos.

“I’ve never had to go through something like this,” Wood, who did not meet with reporters after the game, said Saturday. “I just have to be patient. I expect to go out and pitch the way I can and it’s not happening.”

Wood was the 1998 NL rookie of the year, but was sidelined all of last season after elbow surgery.

He watched Friday’s performance on tape immediately after the game, and took the tape home to review as well, “to see if I can find something on my own instead of having 75 people telling me about it.”

Wood is 2-4 with a 6.07 ERA, and has walked 34 batters in 46 innings. Manager Don Baylor said he may skip Wood’s next turn in the rotation to give him more time to throw on the side, but won’t announce that until Monday or Tuesday.

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Tampa Bay has put outfielder Greg Vaughn on the 15-day disabled list because of a right hamstring strain.