Tampa Bay, Phoenix Finally Join The Bigs

Baseball, shut down by a strike since Aug. 12, added two teams Thursday when Tampa Bay and Phoenix were awarded franchises to start play in 1998.

The teams, the first added since Denver and Miami joined the National League in 1993, were approved unanimously during a joint meeting of the American and National leagues. The Phoenix team will be called the Arizona Diamondbacks. The other, for now, is being called the Tampa Bay Devil Rays - but, a fan vote could cause the owners to switch to the Manta Rays.

While baseball officials announced the price of each team was $130 million, they said privately that figure was the present-day value, discounted for future inflation.

The actual cash value, according to two sources speaking on the condition they not be identified, is about $155 million. That’s an increase of $50 million from the price paid by the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins.

Owners did not assign the teams to a league. The resolution they passed said that would happen by January 1997.

“If there was a greater day in the history of Tampa Bay, I don’t know what it is,” Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli said.

For the Tampa Bay area, the vote ended an 11-year wait for baseball, while Phoenix waited five years for its franchise. Tampa Bay has been thwarted in seven previous efforts to land a team.

Despite the strike, baseball owners thought they had to vote on expansion now because of Phoenix. Maricopa County approved funding that would pay for most of the cost to construct a $275 million, retractableroof stadium, but the funding would have disappeared if a franchise hadn’t been awarded by April 1.

Lefebvre being mentioned

Phoenix Suns president Jerry Colangelo, who put together the investment group to bring big-league baseball to Arizona, said hiring a manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks isn’t an immediate priority, but he acknowledged that he would like to have his manager in place at least a year before the team begins play.

An early favorite has to be former Seattle manager Jim Lefebvre, who is currently a hitting coach with the Oakland Athletics.

Colangelo, who said he has known Lefebvre since 1975 when Lefebvre was playing in Japan, acknowledged that Lefebvre has expressed interest in the job.

Fat replacement M’s lose again

The Seattle Mariners’ replacement players are finding life in the majors too fattening.

So manager Lou Piniella, faced with the prospect of starting the season next month with replacements instead of Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson, ordered their lunch-time calories cut in half.

For the rest of spring training, Piniella’s replacements are going to be on slim rations at noon time: Half a sandwich and soup. Off the menu: Cheese, potato chips and ice cream bar.

Piniella’s formula for smaller lunch portions didn’t have any effect on the replacement Mariners on the field. Before a crowd of 953, the Mariners lost their third consecutive spring game, 5-1, to the Milwaukee Brewers in Peoria, Ariz.

The Mariners committed four errors, two by second baseman Greg Steen, and catcher Johnny Cardenas had two passed balls. The Mariners used six pitchers and gave up eight walks, including three bases on balls by Pat Fetty in one inning.

Cardenas and Delwyn Young each had a pair of hits for Seattle, 2-5 this spring.