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| Sunday, March 4 | |||||
| Selig won't rule out having fewer teams | |||||
TEMPE, Ariz. – Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig
said Sunday he would not rule out anything in attempts to handle
the league's salary disparity, and that could include the
subtraction of franchises.
"I will tell you today that the economic situation is so
significant, and as I would call it pervasive, that I wouldn't take
contraction off the table," Selig said. "It's one of the options
out there that we are considering. No question about it, I have had
a change of heart."
Selig made the comments Sunday before the exhibition game
between the Oakland A's and Anaheim Angels in Tempe.
"A year ago, if you had asked me about contraction, I would
have said that I don't like that idea and I had spent a lot of time
thinking about it," Selig said.
Selig said that he was proud that baseball has not moved a team
in nearly 30 years, but also acknowledged it is an option.
Selig said that the disparity between team payrolls is the first
thing people usually ask him about.
"It's the No. 1 question," Selig said. "I don't think that
any of us ever believed that the disparity, both in terms of
payroll and gross revenue, would get to what it is so far.
Therefore, we want to try to solve it. We need to do everything
that we have to do. So, there are no options that are off the
table."
Selig said he hopes owners and players can avoid a work stoppage
after the season when the collective bargaining agreement is up,
but said he learned a long time ago not to make predictions.
"(Baseball's) renaissance is so good, that the only thing that
can impede it is us," Selig said. "The game is very popular.
Hopefully, we don't have what we had eight times in my baseball
career – that is, work stoppage. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | |||||