Selig Not Joining Anaheim Battle

As the Angels throw a weekend fan festival to celebrate the start of a season that could be clouded by a lengthy court fight with the city of Anaheim, Commissioner Bud Selig says he has no plans to intervene in the dispute.

“We’ll let the parties work it out,” Selig said.

In 1996, when the Walt Disney Co. broke off stadium lease negotiations with the city, Selig dispatched American League President Gene Budig to Anaheim. With Budig’s assistance, the two sides resumed talks and reached the agreement that secured Disney’s purchase of the Angels. The company sold the team to Arte Moreno in 2003.

Selig said he has not considered sending an emissary this time and does not expect either party to ask him to do so.

“They’re not going to come to me,” he said. “This is a matter between the Angels and the city.”

Selig maintained his no-comment stance on the event that prompted the court battle, the team’s name change to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. In the weeks preceding the announcement of the change, City Manager Dave Morgan sent two letters regarding the issue to Selig and received no response, city spokesman John Nicoletti said.

The city filed suit against the Angels last month, charging that the new name violated the lease. Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Polos twice refused city requests to rescind the name change and ruled the city had “failed to show a reasonable probability” of winning at trial.

The Anaheim City Council is expected to decide Tuesday whether to proceed to trial, which could take months and subject taxpayers to a million-dollar legal bill. The council considered its options in a 90-minute closed session meeting last Tuesday, but Councilman Richard Chavez said settlement was not discussed.

The two sides briefly discussed settlement before proceeding to court, sources said, but quickly realized compromise at that point would be all but impossible.

Moreno would not settle without the right to call the Angels by the Los Angeles name. No matter what he might offer in exchange, sources said, council members would find it difficult to stand for re-election after voting for a settlement in which the team no longer would be called the Anaheim Angels.

“I don’t think there’s any room to compromise on the team name,” Morgan said on the day the Angels announced the change, “and apparently neither does Arte Moreno.”

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An $850,000 investment in high school outfielder Quan Cosby failed to pay any dividends -- the speedy Cosby recently accepted a full scholarship to play football for the University of Texas, leaving the Angels after failing to rise past Class-A Cedar Rapids in four minor league seasons.

The Angels lured Cosby, a two-sport star at Mart (Texas) High, away from the Longhorn football team with a huge signing bonus after selecting him in the sixth round in 2001, but Cosby hit better than .249 only once in four years.

“He hadn’t progressed a whole bunch,” Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman said. “He gave it a shot in baseball, and not much happened. Sometimes guys turn out, sometimes they don’t.”

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In the wake of John Van Ornum’s retirement in November after five seasons with the Angels, Stoneman has decided to go without an advance scout in 2005. The Angels will fill Van Ornum’s position with Tory Hernandez, who will chart games off video and computers in the office and five major league scouts who will evaluate opponents for three to five games before they play the Angels.

“Some clubs have done away with advance scouts and just use video; we’re going to do the video but not give up the scout in the stadium,” Stoneman said. “I like the advantage of having an extra set of eyes and ears in the stadium prior to an upcoming series. I don’t want to surrender that now.”

Among the Angels’ major league scouts is Jeff Schugel, who was let go by the Dodgers after the 2004 season and hired by Stoneman this winter. Gary Sutherland, the special assistant to the general manager, also will do some advance scouting.

Times staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this report.