Saturday, October 27, 2001
Baseball wonders if two teams are goners
Contraction talk quiet but rampant
The Associated Press
PHOENIX — Baseball is abuzz about two of its teams — but not the ones in the World Series. The talk has been about “contraction,” a term the sport's owners use when referring to getting rid of financially struggling teams.
Owners, who meet Nov.6, may discuss folding franchises. If so, the Montreal Expos are a sure goner. And because the baseball schedule requires an even number of teams to be in each league, other teams are vulnerable, including Florida, Tampa Bay and Minnesota.
Why eliminate teams?
Because they drain money from their competitors, who must subsidize their lack of revenue.
For all the telephone talk, however, there's been no action.
“No decisions have been made on anything,” commissioner Bud Selig said this week.
Three high-ranking baseball executives on other teams, speaking on the condition they not be identified, said no information has been distributed by Selig to ballclubs about the possibility of eliminating teams.
Another top baseball executive, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Selig had not made his thoughts known to his inner circle and was unlikely to do so until just before he decides what he wants to do.
Selig's stance has teams wondering.
“Where there's smoke, there's usually fire,” Arizona owner Jerry Colangelo said Friday. “But I really don't know.”
Owners have not discussed folding teams with the Major League Baseball Players Association, according to union head Donald Fehr. The union maintains that getting rid of teams is subject to collective bargaining and that owners can't take such action without the permission of the players' association.
Baseball's labor agreement expires after the World Series, and owners must decide at next month's meeting whether they will lock out players — which would be the sport's ninth work stoppage since 1972.
Eliminating teams before next season appears unlikely. Several teams already have released schedules for next year, and all 30 clubs are scheduled to play.
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Baseball wonders if two teams are goners
