Selig’s salary is more than many players

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig earned as much last year as some of the league’s top players.

Selig received $14.5 million in the 12 months ending Oct. 31, according to Major League Baseball’s tax return, which was obtained by the Sports Business Journal.

Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, received $4,875,000, the publication reported in this week’s issue. Pay for executive vice presidents included $1.92 million for Rob Manfred (labor relations), $1.3 million for John McHale Jr. (administration) and $1,245,000 for Jonathan Mariner (finance). Sandy Alderson, who quit as executive vice president of baseball operations in 2005 to become chief executive of the San Diego Padres, made $875,000. Jimmie Lee Solomon, who succeeded Alderson in June 2005, made $543,583.

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Chris Carpenter will miss his next turn in the St. Louis Cardinals’ pitching rotation because of right elbow inflammation.

Carpenter gave up five runs in six innings of a 6-1 loss to the New York Mets in Sunday night’s opener. The Cardinals said Carpenter would be evaluated over the next three days.

Carpenter was an All-Star in the last two seasons, going 15-8 last year after winning the National League Cy Young Award with a 21-5 record in 2005.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates will change the name of a stadium sports bar from “Club 21” to “Club 3000” to avoid a legal flap.

The Pirates announced last month they planned to rename PNC Park’s sports bar from the “Montecristo Club” to “Club 21” in honor of Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, who wore No. 21 and played right field. The club overlooks right field.

The proposed name, however, caused an issue with the “21” Club restaurant, a New York City institution and former Prohibition-era speakeasy.

The team announced the stadium sports bar will now be called “Club 3000” and include photo displays of Clemente, Honus Wagner and Paul Waner, who are all members of baseball’s illustrious 3,000-hit club.

Major League Baseball had a record 246 players born in foreign countries and U.S. territories on opening-day rosters, with the New York Mets leading all teams with 15 and the New York Yankees second with 13.

The 29% total included 98 players from the Dominican Republic, 51 from Venezuela and 28 from Puerto Rico.

There are 19 Canadians and nine Japanese players in the majors, and others hail from Aruba, Australia, Colombia, Cuba, Curacao, South Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Taiwan, baseball said in a news release.

The sport’s previous high was 242 players in 2005, the league said. Major League Baseball said that 46.2% of the 6,701 minor league players under contract this year were from foreign countries and U.S. territories.

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RESULTS

* at Seattle 8, Oakland 4: Richie Sexson hit his second home run in two games and Yuniesky Betancourt’s tiebreaking, two-run shot in the seventh inning led the Mariners (2-0), who are off to their best start since 1996, when Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson were on the team.

* at Minnesota 3, Baltimore 2: Jason Bartlett’s broken-bat single drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning and the Twins rallied to beat Daniel Cabrera. Pat Neshek pitched a scoreless seventh for the victory and Joe Nathan earned his second save.

* at Angels 8, Texas 3: Vladimir Guerrero was four for four.