Selig Is Biggest Player in Future of Diamondbacks

In Jerry Colangelo’s thinking, it’s up to Bud Selig.

“The commissioner keeps referring to our franchise as a jewel,” the managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks said. “Well, he has a chance to protect it or bury it.”

Strange business.

With the champagne still bubbly, the second-year Diamondbacks might have only begun to enjoy their National League West title and expansion record for quick success.

However, many people are already wondering where they go from here--aside from the playoffs.

Peter Magowan, managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants, suggested a few days ago that the best way to resolve several of the industry’s time-zone and geographical problems is by moving the Diamondbacks to the American League West and that there is general support for it.

Given the Diamondbacks’ spending habits and the speed with which they have won in the NL West, several of Magowan’s division colleagues would probably endorse the idea that Colangelo has been fighting since his team was created.

The Arizona executive would now like to relax and enjoy his team’s accomplishment, but the realignment issue keeps interfering.

Perturbed by Magowan’s comments, Colangelo wondered, with a touch of sarcasm, if the Giants’ owner had been appointed suddenly to speak for the commissioner.

Ultimately, as Colangelo knows, it will come down to the commissioner, because what Selig wants is what Selig has been getting. And make no mistake, Selig said, there are going to be changes in 2001, among them mild realignment.

“I’m optimistic that we’ll have a completely different schedule,” he said. “To start with, we’re finally going back to the unbalanced schedule that everybody wants and should have been done long ago.”

An unbalanced schedule means each team will play many more games against division rivals. The interleague schedule also will be changed to rotate divisions, meaning it won’t strictly be West versus West, etc., but, for example, West versus Central.

“We’re also going to need a moderate realignment but it would be wrong to focus strictly on Arizona,” Selig said. “We’re working on several different proposals, and I’m sensitive to Jerry’s feelings.”

The general perception is that the 16-team National League will be aligned in four divisions of four teams each, the division winners advancing to the playoffs.

There is expected to be a new Southern Division, with Tampa Bay moving from the American League to join the Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins and a fourth team, a division the Braves should dominate for another decade.

The allied concept calls for the Diamondbacks to join the Angels, Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners in the American League West, with the Texas Rangers moving to a six-team Central Division.

The three division winners and a wild-card team will advance to the AL playoffs.

The expansion agreement with the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays prevented them from being moved for two years, but baseball now has a three-year window in which neither team has control over where it

goes.

By suggesting that Selig has the power to bury the Diamondbacks if he supports their transfer to the American League, Colangelo refers to the club’s most recent market research, which shows that 85% of Phoenix area fans prefer the National League.

After finishing third among the 30 teams in attendance last year, the Diamondbacks raised ticket prices 12% and lost 9,000 season-ticket buyers, the 44,450 average falling to 37,225. Some of that was expected, perhaps, in that the ’98 attendance was inflated by non-fans wanting to see the new team and ballpark. Colangelo, however, isn’t inclined to risk a further falloff and will wage a strong fight if his team is asked to move.

“We have a $350-million investment, which is a lot more than some of the people who are popping off about this,” Colangelo said, undoubtedly referring to Magowan.

Magowan, while saluting the Diamondbacks’ apparent division victory in a recent interview with The Times, was also among the early critics of their spending habits. He was scheduled to take Colangelo on a tour of the Giants’ new Pac Bell Park this weekend. Presumably, given their chilly relationship, they weren’t going to be left alone.

In the meantime, Colangelo said, he has no reason to apologize for what the Diamondbacks have accomplished or what it has cost them. He didn’t establish the price of admission or the rules of the game, he said, and he felt obligated, given the high cost of the initial investment, to seek a quick return.

The Diamondback payroll jumped from $32 million in 1998 to $66 million this year after a $119-million off-season, free-agent signing spree. Colangelo was recently forced to ask investors for an additional $24 million to help cash flow, but the real problem may be down the road because of the amount of deferred salary owed so many players.

Colangelo, who is also a principal owner of the Phoenix Suns, sighed and said, “I remember reaching the NBA finals for the first time in our eighth year with the Suns and there was Red Auerbach [of the Boston Celtics] being interviewed at one end of the court and I was being interviewed at the other, about 32 at the time and thinking, ‘Hey, we’re going to be back here a lot.’ Well, it took us 17 years to get back, so when you get a chance, you go for it. You never know what the future is going to bring.”

If it brings the American League West, Colangelo may conclude that the commissioner didn’t do much to protect the jewel.