Expansion Assignments Made After Balking A.L. Teams Switch

Arizona was put in the National League and Tampa Bay in the American League during a 9-hour meeting of owners in Scottsdale, Ariz., Thursday that may prompt an eventual realignment of major league baseball.

A group of eight A.L. teams threatened Wednesday night to block the expansion assignments, but six of them changed their minds when owners reached an agreement to establish a committee that will examine realignment and the schedule format for 1998 and the future.

“There has been a growing realization that we have to look at geographical realignment,” acting commissioner Bud Selig said.

The committee, chaired by Red Sox CEO John Harrington, could recommend league switches for existing franchises. The committee is to report by June 30. Owners are to vote by Sept. 30.

“It is entirely possible that as this committee moves forward now that teams could be switching leagues, (and divisions) within leagues,” Selig said.

League constitutions say no team can be forced to switch leagues against its will.

The league assignments for Arizona and Tampa Bay needed the approval of 11 teams in each league. N.L. teams voted 14-0 to approve them and A.L. teams voted 12-2, with Kansas City and Texas in the opposition.

While no decision was made on which divisions the new teams will be assigned to, it appears Arizona will wind up in the N.L. West. If Tampa Bay is put in the A.L. East, one team will have to move to the Central and one will have to move from the Central to the West.

Jose Mesa, the Cleveland Indians’ record-setting relief pitcher, was indicted in Cleveland on a charge of raping a 26-year-old woman he met at a nightclub.

Left-hander Sterling Hitchcock, acquired by the San Diego Padres from Seattle on Dec. 6, has agreed to a two-year contract.