Let's nip this in the Bud

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By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 15, 2001

Any minute, the phone will ring.

Any minute, the day will be saved.

The troubles of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have grown out of control, but do not worry. The team has been portrayed as a hopeless bunch of bozos owned by a cat-fighting group of bumpkins, but never fear. The national view is the team should be put out of its misery, but be patient.

Any minute now, Budman will appear.

Any minute now, the commissioner will ride to the rescue.

Bud?

Bud?

A real commissioner would have been here by now, wouldn't he? A man charged with maintaining the best interests of baseball would have shown up and ordered the six general partners of this team into a room. He would have said no one was going to leave until everyone agreed on where the lines are drawn. He would have hailed fire and brimstone, thunder and lightning. In the end, he would have the right guys talking and the wrong guys shutting up.

For goodness' sake, where is Bud Selig? For baseball's sake, what did he have better to do on Monday, or Sunday, or today, or tomorrow, than bail this franchise out of a quagmire he helped create?

Best interest? What evidence do we have that the commissioner of baseball has any interest in this franchise beyond using it as an exhibit of how bad things are in the upcoming labor wars?

It gets uglier every day. Backbiters over here, in-fighters over there. Rogue warriors in front, rebel forces in back. With every edition of the New York Times, with every story in USA Today, those who run the Rays look like a bunch of children in a sandbox arguing over who gets to use the big shovel.

It is time baseball stopped the noise. Although baseball apparently has been working in the background for some time, Selig should publicly address the Rays situation. If you want to know the truth, Selig is slow upon arrival. If Selig was Superman, Lois Lane would be a greasy spot on the sidewalk outside the Daily Planet, which also has written of the Rays' ownership rift.

As commissioner, isn't Selig supposed to be baseball's supreme arbiter? And what situation could need arbitration as bad as the factions that have formed inside the Rays' ownership group.

Two things appear obvious. One, the situation isn't going away. Two, it isn't getting better, either.

A couple of weeks ago, there appeared to be a compromise. The disharmony of the ownership group had reached the offices of baseball, and an understanding was reached regarding the future of the franchise. Vince Naimoli was going to back away and become chairman of the board, and a new chief operating officer was going to be hired. Supposedly, everyone was going to be happy.

It hasn't happened. It appears the other partners have reconsidered. Reports of Naimoli's demise appear exaggerated.

"I'm here, and I'm running the team," Naimoli said Monday.

Not only that, but Naimoli seems a little irked. He is particularly upset over the reports the team will have trouble meeting payroll.

"Absolutely untrue," he said. "We have never had problems meeting payroll, and we do not anticipate having any. These kinds of stories hurt the reputation of the franchise. I think the reputation of the area and the team are being hurt."

Naimoli said he still wants to hire a chief operating officer. He says such a position would be invaluable to the franchise.

It would be better, of course, if the commissioner of baseball were sitting beside Naimoli as he talked, if the general partners of the team were in the room with their vows of silence broken.

After all the days, after all these stories, who knows what to believe? One day you hear there are two factions among the Rays' six general partners, some days you hear as many as four. Sometimes you hear it is one general partner making the majority of the noise. Regardless, if the team in the corporate offices is in disarray, it's hard to expect anything different from the team on the field.

Ask yourself this: If you were a rival general manager, what would you think about trading with the Devil Rays right now? You'd think about trading nothing for something. You'd think the team was so desperate to shuck salaries, that it would give you anyone you wanted at clearance prices. For that reason alone, Selig needs to speak.

Why has Selig been so quiet? Historically, baseball likes to brag about its strong ownership. But it is well-established that the ownership of the Rays has factions. Selig wouldn't exactly be breaking the story. He can simply tell us the truth of it.

Besides, if Selig were honest, he would admit baseball helped create this mess. Go back to the highway robbery the sport called its last expansion. Both Tampa Bay and Arizona were charged $130-million in expansion fees -- $35-million more than Miami and Denver and $25-million more than had been discussed. On top of that, the teams lost an additional $25-million with the withholding of television money. When you consider start-up costs, rising salaries and the limitations on draft picks, there was no way for either team to be financially viable.

Selig should take it upon himself to calm the baseball fans of the area. He should stop acting as if what is going on is none of our business. If there are no financial concerns, he should tell us. If there are, he should tell us that. If there are rogue general partners dispelling false information, he should tell them to go away.

Any minute, the phone will ring.

Any minute, the commissioner will tell us the truth.

Bud?

Bud?

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