Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.sports From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: NL owners reject deal to move Giants Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:23:38 EST Message-ID: \SE D;SPORTS \SS (WS) \HD NL owners reject deal to move Giants \DT SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - The Giants remain in San Francisco, and Florida's West Coast remains without a major league baseball team. National League owners, in a move they said stressed stability but was sure to spark a legal battle, decisively rejected yesterday a $115 million deal to move the NL team to St. Petersburg, Fla., even though the best offer to keep the team in San Francisco was $15 million less. It was the first formal rejection of a move that baseball officials could remember. In all previous instances, shifts were stopped before a formal vote was taken. It also marked the seventh time the St. Petersburg area had tried - and failed - to lure a major league team, a move that would have put two NL franchises in Florida and essentially locked up the Southeast for the league. "I feel badly for the people of St. Petersburg, who were eagerly looking forward to having major league baseball in their area," Giants owner Bob Lurie said. The city of St. Petersburg has threatened to file lawsuits against the city of San Francisco, the major leagues and a group of investors led by Safeway Inc. chairman Peter Magowan for interfering with their deal. San Francisco, in turn, filed a suit yesterday, even before the vote was announced, to block any legal action by St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg assistant city manager Rick Dodge, in statements before the vote, called the San Francisco counteroffer illegal and talked of damages into the hundreds of millions of dollars. "This is not an issue of what the city did right, what the community did right," Dodge said after the vote. "It's what baseball did wrong. We have been damaged. . . . The only appropriate available channel to pursue is the legal." Asked how a lawsuit would affect the area's relationship to major league baseball, he replied: "I don't imagine it will improve it." Perhaps more importantly than the city's possible legal action, Florida Sen. Connie Mack vowed to ask Congress to rescind baseball's antitrust exemption. "I don't believe the antitrust exemption was ever intended to control the movement of franchises," Mack said. "It's time to end all doubt and revoke baseball's abused antitrust privilege." "The NL did today what they believe very strongly to be in the best interest of baseball," said Bud Selig, president of the Milwaukee Brewers and chairman of baseball's executive council. "The NL did what it thought was right. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't." Yesterday's vote, after seven hours of meetings, never moved past the first stage. NL owners voted 9-4 against the sale, six supporting votes less than the 11 needed to send the action to a decisive ballot by American League owners. "In doing so, the [National] league reaffirmed baseball's long-established preference for the stability of its franchises," Selig said. No breakdown of the votes was released, although Carl Barger, the head of the expansion Florida Marlins, said he voted in favor of the move. Based on interviews with owners and officials, it appeared the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies joined the Marlins in voting in favor of a move. The owners did not consider the $100 million package put forward as a counteroffer by Magowan's group. But Lurie said he would honor the rejection of the St. Petersburg offer and congratulated Magowan and his supporters for coming up with a package good enough to force the question and "to keep the Giants in San Francisco." "I know the feeling you have today," said Lurie, who saved the Giants for the Bay area himself 16 years ago. "I had the same wonderful feeling in 1976." Lurie said he had been given 10 days to consider the Magowan group's offer, under which he would retain an ownership interest. "If Bob Lurie should decide to sell the Giants locally, our group is ready to acquire the franchise," Magowan said in a statement. Yesterday's vote came three months after Lurie announced agreement in principle to sell the Giants to a St. Petersburg group headed by Vincent J. Naimoli. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM