Owners, Players About To Discuss Revenue Sharing

Baseball owners appeared to move closer to a new revenue-sharing agreement Wednesday night but admitted the players’ association could block the idea.

Owners will vote on revenue sharing in Phoenix today, according to a source who spoke on the condition he not be identified. But a management lawyer, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said owners can’t put an agreement into effect without the union’s permission.

“We’re under a status-quo order,” the lawyer said. “We’re not going to risk violating it.”

U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction last March 31 preventing owners from changing work rules without her permission or an agreement with the union. The owners’ lawyers do not want to be in a position where Sotomayor determines new revenue-sharing rules affect salaries.

Randy Levine, the owners’ chief negotiator, said that if a revenuesharing plan is adopted, he would present it to the union at a bargaining session tonight in Phoenix.

Twenty-one of the 28 teams must approve a revenue-sharing deal, and sources said acting commissioner Bud Selig wouldn’t have scheduled a vote unless he had enough votes for approval. The New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Atlanta were thought to be against the plan.

A’s choose Las Vegas

The Oakland Athletics, stranded by renovations to their stadium, finally found a place to hold opening day - in a 9,334-seat minor-league park in Las Vegas. Two days after announcing the Oakland Coliseum would not be ready for them on April 1, the Athletics chose windy Cashman Field over the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans as their home away from home.

Oakland is scheduled to open the season in Las Vegas against Toronto on April 1 and also play the Blue Jays there April 3. The Detroit Tigers will visit Cashman Field for four games against the A’s on April 4-7.

Injury sidelines Bonds

Although a bad batting-practice swing could force Barry Bonds to miss the rest of spring training, the San Francisco Giants feel fortunate the injury isn’t more serious.

Giants manager Dusty Baker said that Bonds probably will miss five to seven days with a bruised left wrist, and could be sidelined for the rest of the exhibition season. An MRI and X-rays Tuesday showed nothing more than a deep bone bruise.

“We’re very relieved,” Baker said. “This could have been something major and he could have been out two months or something.”

Bonds, who complained of soreness in the wrist last week, aggravated the injury during batting practice on Monday and has not played since.

He played the last few weeks of the 1995 season with a hairline fracture of his right wrist.

Seattle short list grows

The number of sites being considered for a new Seattle Mariners baseball stadium has increased to five.

The panel charged with overseeing construction of the new stadium added two sites Tuesday to three locations already identified near the Kingdome.

The additional sites are a bit farther away: a bus barn near the Seattle Center and a U.S. Postal Service property in the industrial district south of downtown.

Cora leads Mariners The Seattle Mariners’ new double-play combination turned offensive as second baseman Joey Cora and shortstop Alex Rodriguez led the Mariners to a 9-5 win over Milwaukee at Peoria, Ariz.

Cora went 3 for 3, scored a run and drove in two while Rodriguez contributed two hits and scored twice. Seattle, 8-11, this spring, ended a five-game losing streak while the Brewers lost for the 15th time in 20 exhibition games.

Sandberg connects

Ryne Sandberg homered for the first time this spring, and Luis Gonzalez hit a grand slam as the rest of the Chicago Cubs beat a Colorado split squad, 14-7.

Sandberg has hit .444 over the last nine games, raising his spring average to .298.

Reds farmhand dies

Randy Donisthorpe, 23, of Fayette, Iowa, a minor league pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, died in his sleep at the team’s spring training hotel in Plant City, Fla., after an apparent seizure.

Karros finally debuts

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Eric Karros, who has been out because of a strained left hamstring, made his first appearance in an exhibition game.

Karros was 0 for 2 with a walk, but fielded a ground ball with no problems.

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