Baseball Leaders To Appoint Commissioner Search Group

Baseball’s team owners Tuesday began three days of meetings in which they plan to appoint a commissioner search committee and assign the 1998 expansion teams to leagues.

Meanwhile, sources close to the situation said that Randy Levine - who negotiated the labor agreement with the players association that the owners ratified in November - is nearing a decision about whether to remain in baseball.

By then the owners plan to have begun the process of locating and hiring a commissioner. Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig, as chairman of the Executive Council, has been the sport’s fill-in leader since the owners forced Fay Vincent into resigning as commissioner in September 1992.

The owners plan to make it official and place the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the American League this week, but they probably won’t deal with the possible realignment of the A.L. that might accompany such a move in ‘98. The Diamondbacks will fit easily into the N.L. West, giving the N.L. three five-team divisions.

The owners seemingly would like to place the Devil Rays in the A.L. East.