NEW YORK -- Rep. John Conyers Jr. would back off his call
for Bud Selig's resignation if the commissioner dropped his threat
to eliminate teams this season.
The Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos are the likely
targets of Selig's contraction plan.
Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee,
said Wednesday that Selig appeared to violate major league rules in
1995 when he arranged a loan for his Milwaukee Brewers from a
company controlled by Twins owner Carl Pohlad. The loan, Conyers
said, created an "irreparable conflict of interest."
Conyers later backtracked a bit, telling ESPN Radio he thinks Selig should only step aside until the issues in question are investigated.
"This isn't a ... you know ... I'm not down on Selig," Conyers said on ESPN Radio. "I love the game, I'd love to do this thing as reasonably as I can. The only thing I'm asking is that we act a little bit more cooperatively, and stepping aside would be much more reasonable than him resigning."
"As an alternative, let me suggest that you immediately
announce that major league baseball will not contract any teams and
not place any team ownership in league control prior to the
conclusion of the upcoming season," Conyers wrote Selig on
Thursday. "This would give us all the time and opportunity
necessary to consider the range of issues, including potential
conflict of interest problems, that have arisen."
Selig replied to Conyers but did not respond to the
congressman's suggestion that contraction be put off.
"I'm going to be meeting with some of Selig's lawyers in New
York next week," Conyers said Friday at a news conference in his
Detroit office. "Maybe we can still stay friends in the new year
and get the kind of cooperation we need. What is it that we need?
We need the commissioner to come back before the committee because
there are as many questions out now as there were then."
Another company owned by the Pohlad's family, Builders Mortgage
Company LLC, had a financial relationship with the Colorado Rockies
owner Jerry McMorris, The Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported
Friday.
Builders Mortgage is listed as the secured party in several
transactions in which McMorris or Timnath Farms Inc. -- which
McMorris controls -- is listed as a debtor, according to records
filed in 2000 with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.
McMorris and Pohlad didn't immediately return telephone calls
Friday.
Meanwhile, the hearing on the grievance by the players'
association to block contraction resumed before arbitrator Shyam
Das. On the eighth day of the hearing, union head Donald Fehr
completed his testimony.
Also, baseball general counsel Tom Ostertag and Atlanta Braves
chairman Bill Bartholomay met with Donald Watkins, who says he
wants to buy the Twins from Pohlad.
"It was a great day, a very positive and productive meeting,"
Watkins said. "I finally found the welcome mat in major league
baseball. I couldn't have scripted a meeting any better if I had
tried to write it as a screenplay."
Twins owner Carl Pohlad, frustrated that Minnesota's government
hasn't approved a plan for funding a new ballpark, told Selig he is
willing to have his franchise folded as part of Selig's contraction
plan.
Watkins would like to save the Twins by purchasing the team. He
would be the first black controlling owner in major league history.
"It was a chance for me to go over in great detail matters that
were covered in my application form," Watkins said, "particularly
personal background matters and financial portfolio matters, and to
explain to them the financing model and rationale for wanting to
build a privately financed stadium.
Bartholomay was not available for comment.
"We had a very friendly, productive and informative
introductory meeting," Ostertag said. "We covered a wide range of
topics in a comprehensive manner and will continue to have
discussions in the future."
Watkins intends to speak with Twins president Jerry Bell about
getting permission to review the team's financial records. Watkins
said Bartholomay and Ostertag encouraged him to contact the Twins.
"They suggested that I contact Carl Pohlad directly now and
have my first meeting with him," Watkins said. "I will do that
when I get back to Birmingham next week."
Owners voted Nov. 6 to eliminate two teams, but did not select
which ones. Ten days later, a Minnesota judge issued an injunction
that forces the Twins to play next season, an order the team and
baseball have asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to overturn.
"Given the logistical difficulties in contracting at this late
juncture, the pending lawsuit in Minnesota, and the players'
association's complaint, it would seem that it is impossible to
contract at this point without creating even more problems for
baseball, its players, and most importantly, its fans," Conyers
said.
Conyers' staff and baseball are at odds over disclosure of the
sport's financial information. Conyers wants baseball to waive a
confidentiality clause that prevents the union from releasing
financial information it has obtained from management.
In a Jan. 4 letter to Judiciary Committee chairman F. James
Sensenbrenner, baseball lawyer Bob DuPuy said the union could
discuss any of the information management released but could not
release any figures that were still confidential.
Selig, in his letter to Conyers, claimed baseball and the
committee had agreed to a solution, but Conyers' staff disputed
that.
Conyers denied suggestions that his attacks on Selig were being
done on behalf of the players' union.
"Although I'm sympathetic to the players, I don't make any
bones about that, but we're doing this on our own," Conyers said
Friday. "I've got a group of very good investigative lawyers. They
don't need to get pointers from somebody on what to investigate.
Baseball is a pretty wide-open subject."
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