Brett’s Bid To Buy Royals Getting Serious
Bobby Brett’s bid to go big league is picking up momentum.
The co-owner of the Spokane Chiefs and Spokane Indians, among other holdings, is putting together a group with his Hall of Fame brother George Brett that is preparing a bid for ownership of the Kansas City Royals.
The Royals are controlled by a charitable trust left by the club’s late owner, Ewing Kaufman.
Previously, Brett said his group had an outside chance to assume control of the American League club.
He upgraded his chances Wednesday.
“Maybe I’m naive but I think we have a real shot at this,” Brett said. “We have the experience not only in business but in sports that I believe make us the most qualified people to take this on and make it a success in Kansas City.”
As he indicated last week in an interview with the S-R’s John Blanchette, Brett would retain his sports holdings. That’s a reversal from a previous statement that owning the Royals would probably mean that he and his brothers would liquidate some of their sports and real estate properties.
“We might unload some real estate properties in Southern California but the plan right now is to not unload anything,” he said.
Brett assumes new ownership will be in place in Kansas City at the conclusion of next season, in October, ‘98.
“The horse race has started,” said Brett, who declined to put a figure on the worth of the Royals or identify his potential partners outside the Brett family.
Chiefs get down
The Chiefs are carrying 27 players into tonight’s Arena date with the Tri-City Americans, two or three more than they’ll permanently employ.
Left wing Bill Bellmore was released Thursday.
A 6-1, 180-pound 19-year-old from Apple Valley, Minn., Bellmore is considering a number of options, Chiefs GM Tim Speltz said, including the American Frontier League, where he played last year.
The Billings Bulls, owned by former Chiefs public address announcer Eric Bonano, want Bellmore if the rest of the WHL passes on him.
“We’re checking to see if anybody in our league has a place for him,” Speltz said. “He’s got a lot of potential but it’s tough when you haven’t played at this level and now you’re 19.”
Bellmore had one assist in five games.
The Spokane roster will undergo more trimming.
“Twenty-seven is probably too many,” Speltz said. “We’ll want to get down by two or three more. That’ll happen over the next two weeks.”
Americans import help
The Americans come in tonight with new head coach Rick Lanz and a different look.
The Americans unloaded veteran defenseman Scott McCallum Thursday. McCallum went to the Brandon Wheat Kings for defenseman Jeff Katcher, a sixth-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings.
The Americans also acquired 20-year-old left wing Ondrej Vesely from the Portland Winter Hawks for future considerations.
To make room for Vesely the Americans dropped right wing Roman Sykora, who appears headed for the Tier II team in Trail, British Columbia.
Tri-City broadcaster John Emmett said McCallum had underachieved in Tri-City.
“Defensively right now we’re one of the worst teams on the planet,” Emmett said. “We had to get better fast. Katcher is a big guy (6-4, 195) who can hopefully come in here and get excited about making the front of the net a hazardous place to be.”
Emmett was with a Tri-City entourage at the Arena Wednesday night for the Chiefs’ 4-4 tie with Lethbridge.
“We saw (the Chiefs’) Ty Jones score two goals,” Emmett said. “We don’t match up with him. Hopefully Mr. Katcher can make it tougher for a guy like that.”
Ex-Chiefs check
Defenseman Hugh Hamilton, last year’s Spokane captain, won’t be back with the Chiefs at 20.
The Carolina Hurricanes, who signed Hamilton over the summer, sent him to New Haven of the American Hockey League.
Hamilton will bump into a jumble of old friends in the AHL.
Jason Podollan is scoring a point a night for Toronto’s farm club, the St. John’s Maple Leafs. The former Spokane sniper has a goal and four assists in five games.
Jan Hrdina and Darren Sinclair, two others who helped the Chiefs win Spokane’s only WHL West Division regular-season championship, in ‘95-96, are together in Syracuse.
Hrdina has five points and 24 penalty minutes. Sinclair’s numbers include two assists and a short-handed goal.
Joe Cardarelli has appeared in nine games for the Adirondack Red Wings without scoring. His teammate in upstate New York is ex-Chiefs captain Sean Gillam, who has an assist in six AHL games.
Martin Cerven wound up with the Philadelphia Phantoms. Cerven, whom the Chiefs sent to Seattle at the ‘96 WHL trade deadline for Hrdina, has a goal and an assist in nine games for the AHL Mid-Atlantic Division-leading Phantoms.
Bobby House, a Spokane Chief of late 1980s-early ‘90s vintage, is hot for the AHL Albany River Rats. Through Albany’s first seven games House had eight points, including two goals on the power play. The New Jersey Devils’ farm club is only a point behind Hamilton in the AHL Empire Division.
Former Chiefs badboy Link Gaetz is back on the ice, this time with the Anchorage Aces of the West Coast Hockey League. Gaetz told Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press that, at 29, he’s having fun. He was in three fights in four games and leads the league with 55 penalty minutes. “Nothing’s changed there,” Gaetz is quoted as saying. What has changed, apparently, is the root of the problems that plagued him in Spokane in 1987-88, and elsewhere. “Every off-ice problem I’ve had has been alcohol-related,” Gaetz said. “But now it’s in the past. Hopefully my career can keep moving forward.”
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