Conyers Offers Selig Alternative

The House Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat said Thursday he will back off his call for Bud Selig’s resignation if the major league baseball commissioner dropped his threat to eliminate teams this season.

The Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos are the likely targets of Selig’s contraction plan.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan said Wednesday that Selig appeared to violate major league rules in 1995 when he arranged a loan for his Milwaukee Brewers from a company controlled by Twin owner Carl Pohlad. The loan, Conyers said, created an “irreparable conflict of interest.”

“As an alternative, let me suggest that you immediately announce that major league baseball will not contract any teams and not place any team ownership in league control prior to the conclusion of the upcoming season,” Conyers wrote Selig on Thursday.

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Charles Dolan made a new bid for the Boston Red Sox, a $700-million offer that was $40 million higher than the winning offer the team accepted three weeks ago.

The team acknowledged the offer from Dolan, the chairman of Cablevision System Corp., but didn’t say if it would affect the $660-million offer it accepted in mid-December from a group led by John Henry.

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Donald Watkins was given the go-ahead to contact the Twins about making an offer to buy the team.

Atlanta Brave chairman Bill Bartholomay, the chairman of baseball’s ownership committee, and Tom Ostertag, baseball’s chief legal counsel, met with Watkins and one of his lawyers.

Watkins would be the first black controlling owner in major league history.

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Wearing his old No. 33, left-hander David Wells looked right at home. Wells returned to Yankee Stadium, where the New York Yankees announced his signing to a $7-million, two-year contract.

“The city knows, the organization knows, this is where I belong,” said Wells, who helped pitch the Yankees to the 1998 World Series championship. “I’ve got the mentality for New York, and New York has it for me.”

Wells had no trouble getting back his favorite number. Infielder Alfonso Soriano gave it up voluntarily.

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Wells Armed

The signing of left-hander David Wells to a two-year contract gives the Yankees six starters--Roger Clemens, Orlando Hernandez, Sterling Hitchcock, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte and Wells, leaving the team with the option of moving one to the bullpen--or to another team. A look at their career totals