Acting Commissioner Bud Selig, who has been batting 1.000 with his fellow moguls, is likely to strike out unless he chokes up on his bat and tries for a single instead of a grand slam on the controversial issue of “radical” realignment to force 15 major-league teams to change leagues.
Aware he doesn’t have the votes for such sweeping changes, Selig may downsize at the three-day owners meeting that begins Tuesday and offer similar plans that would affect 13, 11, nine or seven teams. None of these scenarios is expected to fly. In the final version, if there is one, there would be only three or four relocations.
As Winston Churchill once said, “It’s better to jaw-jaw than wah-wah,” and the growing belief among insiders is there will be more “jaw-jaw”–the owners will engage in much talk and depart without a decision.
Selig refused Monday to predict whether any of the realignment possibilities would come to a vote.
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“There could be and there may not be,” he said, begging the question. “It depends where we are in the process.”
Cubs President Andy MacPhail, a firm opponent of realignment, offered a more significant reply: “When it comes to votes, (Selig) doesn’t make mistakes.”
In other words, Selig, a veteran and skillful operator, will know going in which side will carry and will adjust accordingly.
So heated is the dispute that owner Peter Magowan of the San Francisco Giants, previously a peaceable sort, is threatening to sue if the Giants and Oakland Athletics are placed in the same league. Magowan said he will base his litigation on the belief that when he purchased the Giants, he bought the exclusive National League rights to the Bay Area.
Selig insisted expansion to Arizona and Tampa Bay, both of which will begin play next season, triggered realignment talk. In an attempt to balance the leagues at 15 teams each, Arizona originally was to compete in the NL and Tampa in the AL.
This is a mistake, Selig concedes, because having 15-team leagues would mean one club would be idle each day.
“The only way this could be avoided would be for a daily interleague game,” Selig explained. “I don’t think anybody quite understood the scheduling difficulties which are now so troubling. That’s why we got into realignment. We can’t solve this problem without significant realignment.”
Initially, the general belief was that it would be beneficial if the Giants and the A’s–and the Cubs-White Sox and Yankees-Mets–were grouped together to stimulate the gate and decrease travel costs.
Selig said his surveys revealed most fans were in favor, but MacPhail, in addition to Magowan and five other NL clubs, didn’t bite into Selig’s apple. MacPhail, in a canvass of the Cubs’ season-ticket holders, found the opposite was true. He said 74.2 percent of his respondents opposed any change.
One longtime Cubs fan, Leonard J. Jacobs of Oregon, Ill., wrote: “If you let Selig get away with this, the Cubs in the AL, I will be totally flabbergasted. You should shout to the rooftops. Think of it, the Cubs were playing in the NL since the beginning of the 1876 season–two months before Col. Custer’s last stand.”
Realignment formats since have been reworked. The Cubs, in the subsequent plans, would remain in the NL and the White Sox–a founding member of the AL in 1901–would stay there.
According to the rules, any team ordered to move has veto power, but only over its move. Because there appear to be seven NL franchises against change, a stalemate seems likely. The only clubs that would welcome relocation are Kansas City, Houston and Tampa Bay. Kansas City and Tampa Bay would move from the AL to the NL, Houston from the NL to the AL.
There could be an adequate solution if Selig would invoke the commissioner’s “best interests” powers. Selig has indicated he doesn’t want to go this route and is harboring the fanciful delusion a plan can be found that would be agreeable to all.
No way that’s going to happen unless King Solomon reappears, and that isn’t likely.