Schott Faces Indefinite Suspension, Sources Indicate Announcement Expected Today; Reds Owner Had Signed 1993 Agreement Forbidding Insensitive Comments

Marge Schott is expected to be removed from the daily operations of the Cincinnati Reds and suspended indefinitely today by Major League Baseball’s executive council, three high-ranking officials said Tuesday.

Acting commissioner Bud Selig is expected to issue the 10-member executive council’s edict from his office in Milwaukee this afternoon.

Baseball will not be able to order Schott to divest her financial interests in the club, but is removing her from the team’s daily operations under the catch-all phrase, “In the best interests of baseball,” the sources said.

The sources - two members of the council and another top baseball official - spoke on the condition of anonymity. The sources wouldn’t say how long the suspension will last.

Neither Schott, the Reds’ CEO, nor the Reds could be reached Tuesday.

In 1993, Schott was fined $25,000 and suspended for a year for insensitive remarks and racial slurs she made concerning black athletes Dave Parker and Eric Davis.

Schott started a new controversy last month when, on ESPN, she said of Adolf Hitler: “Everybody knows he was good at the beginning, but he just went too far.” She was later quoted in Sports Illustrated making insensitive remarks against Asian-Americans, women and some of her players.

Schott issued an apology but baseball vowed to investigate further.

One council source said Schott has not been in contact with Selig or the National League since last Wednesday, when she was ordered to relinquish her duties or face indefinite suspension. The source also said that Schott has told the council: “I don’t see that I said anything wrong.”

A high-ranking baseball source said Schott’s attorney, Cincinnati’s Robert U. Martin, and baseball attorneys have been in almost daily contact, but “That shouldn’t be construed as negotiating. There is no negotiating. She will be relieved of her duties and suspended.”

A second council source said the executive council probably would permit Martin to run and oversee Schott’s financial holdings in the Reds.

Baseball sources say former Pittsburgh Pirates president Mark Sauer, who is still with the club in an administrative capacity, will be brought in to run the every-day operation of the Reds.

Sauer, 39, is a former front-office executive with the St. Louis Cardinals and was named president of the Pirates in October 1991. He and his wife Georgia, fashion editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, are active with minority groups and are involved with inner-city youth and sports programs.

When asked how Schott can be removed, the baseball source said, “Just check what Schott signed in February 1993, when we suspended her the first time.”

In that agreement, Schott signed a document that said she would accept indefinite suspension if she made further insensitive comments.