Selig Gets Big Show of Support

Major league owners voted unanimously Tuesday to extend Commissioner Bud Selig’s contract for three years, saying, as George Steinbrenner did, that baseball is at an economic crossroads and it is “absolutely imperative we have the continuity and stability” of leadership that “Bud best provides.” Put another way by an industry official:

“When you’re going into battle over long-term challenges such as contraction and a new labor agreement, you want to know your back is covered, that you have stability of leadership and a united approach.”

Selig is now under contract through Dec. 31, 2006. The vote of confidence--at a time when baseball faces legal hurdles over contraction, potentially combustible talks with the union on a new labor agreement and Congressional interest in removing the sport’s antitrust exemption--was so preordained that baseball’s official Web site had a story on it--complete with quotes from Selig and other owners--only 45 minutes after the meeting began and about two hours before it ended and Selig held a news conference to discuss it.

Although some owners have expressed concern recently regarding Selig’s off-season strategy and leadership, baseball made sure reporters were treated to a show of support, with Steinbrenner, the New York Yankees’ boss of bosses and baseball’s senior owner now that Selig has his Milwaukee Brewers in trust, one of five to attend the news conference and speak glowingly about the commissioner.

At union offices in New York, the reaction wasn’t quite the same.

A union official addressing the curious timing of the extension--Selig had almost two years left on a five-year contract he received July 9, 1998--said it suggested “an incredible level of insecurity.”

Associate general counsel Gene Orza was more reserved.

“I think what it says is, ‘Let’s make sure we’re unified going into negotiations with the union, and the way to do that is extend Bud,”’ Orza said. “I don’t have any problem with it. They’re entitled to pick who they want.”

Selig, 67, said he cherishes the office, recognizes his responsibility and was honored by an extension that “wasn’t my idea.” He said a group of owners, believed to include close allies David Glass of Kansas City, Drayton McLane of Houston and John Moores of San Diego, proposed it to him about six weeks ago.

“I hadn’t even thought about it,” Selig insisted, “but they felt the timing was right, that the stability and continuity was needed.

“I told them that I wanted some time to consider it, and one of the things I did was go back in my mind to the ‘70s and replay every labor negotiation, what happened to each commissioner and why it happened, and that helped to convince me their logic was correct and that this was not only consistent but overwhelmingly consistent.”

It is possible that lawyers for baseball and the union will begin substantive talks on a new labor agreement this week, but those negotiations remain complicated by contraction.

Two developments expected today could clarify the calendar.

Arbitrator Shyam Das may set a hearing date on the union grievance claiming the owners violated the bargaining agreement by voting to contract, and the Minnesota Supreme Court could announce whether it will agree to baseball’s request for an expedited appeal of the district court’s injunction that would force the Minnesota Twins to honor the final year of their lease and play in the Metrodome next year.

Amid the unresolved legal issues, owners received an update on contraction Tuesday but did not officially name the Twins and Montreal Expos as the teams to be contracted, nor did they pull the plug on the process or announce a deadline at which it becomes unfeasible for 2002.

Selig said he is taking it day by day, but whether it happens in 2002 or is delayed, “we will contract” because owners remain convinced that it’s a part of the solution to what Selig called baseball’s “greatly deteriorating economics.”

He said 25 of the 30 teams suffered losses totaling $511 million in 2001, that clubs have lost so much money they can’t pay the interest on the debt, that he will reveal the club-by-club figures when he appears before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on Dec. 6 and that he had representatives from baseball’s two leading financial lenders--Bank of America and Fleet Bank--outline the bleak situation in Tuesday’s meeting.

He said the system has to change, that owners can no longer put it off, and that the union has long received the figures on a yearly basis.

Of course, it comes down to the eye of the beholder. The union sees spiraling attendance and revenue that has doubled since the last labor dispute.

“It’s the same old story of not being able to see the forest for the trees,” Orza said. “If the economics are so bad, why is Tom Werner [the former San Diego owner now bidding for the Boston Red Sox] fighting to get back in, why do [Montreal owner] Jeff Loria and [Florida owner] John Henry want to stay in and why does a member of the owners’ own economic study committee [former Sen. George Mitchell] want to get in? I don’t understand.”

Mitchell has joined the Werner group, as has Henry, although Selig insisted Henry does not have an agreement to sell the Marlins to Loria and baseball has no plan to operate the Expos in 2002 if contraction is delayed for a year and Loria does buy the Marlins.

However, a source familiar with Henry’s previous negotiations with the Walt Disney Co. to buy the Angels said Selig is simply covering his contraction tracks. The source said that Henry does indeed have an agreement with Loria to sell the Marlins and is indeed now allied with the Werner/Mitchell group trying to buy the Red Sox.

“I can’t speak directly for Disney,” the source said, “but the impression seems to be that while their negotiations with Henry have stalled, they may not be over. If the Werner group isn’t successful [in buying the Red Sox], then Henry’s talks with the Angels would still be alive.”

Sealed bids in the Red Sox sweepstakes must be submitted to the Yawkey Trust by Thursday. A winner is expected to be announced early next week. Werner, Henry and Mitchell are close friends of Selig’s, which could be decisive, although Boston land developer Frank McCourt, who heads an opposing group, owns 25 prime acres near the harbor in South Boston. As a possible site for the new Fenway Park, that too has appeal to baseball and its newly extended commissioner.

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BASEBALL COMMISSIONERS

* Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Nov. 12, 1920 to Nov. 25, 1944.

* Happy Chandler, April 24, 1945 to July 15, 1951.

* Ford Frick, Sept. 20, 1951 to Nov. 16, 1965.

* William Eckert, Nov. 17, 1965 to Dec. 20, 1968.

* Bowie Kuhn, Feb. 4, 1969 to Sept. 30, 1984.

* Peter Ueberroth, Oct. 1, 1984 to March 31, 1989.

* A. Bartlett Giamatti, April 1, 1989 to Sept. 1, 1989.

* Fay Vincent, Sept. 13, 1989 to Sept. 7, 1992.

* Bud Selig, Sept. 9, 1992 to July 8, 1998 (acting); July 9, 1998 to present.