Baseball May Take A Shot At Suspending Marge
Major League Baseball’s Executive Council will seek to suspend controversial Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott for an indefinite period - at least through the remainder of the 1996 season - when it meets today in Philadelphia, sources have told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sources within baseball and the Reds organization say the suspension would be the first step toward wresting day-to-day control of the team away from baseball’s only female owner. Late Tuesday, Schott was summoned to Philadelphia for today’s meeting, a highly unusual step.
Although Schott has been widely vilified for racist and anti-Semitic remarks, sources say her suspension will be tied to her increasingly frugal operation of the Reds’ franchise.
“We have to look at where the franchise is going and the image she is portraying to the community,” an ownership source said. “This is a very image-sensitive business, but legally you have to clothe this by asking, ‘Is this individual fit to run this team?’
“It can’t be based on what this person has said, because as reprehensible as that might be, you’re getting into First Amendment issues. The question has to be, ‘Is this person fit to be one of the 28 people who own major league baseball teams?’ If not, baseball has the prerogative to take action.”
The Executive Council consists of 13 members - five owners from each of the two leagues, the two league presidents and acting commissioner Bud Selig.
Several sources confirmed there have been numerous informal talks in recent weeks regarding Schott between league officials and individual team executives. One source said Major League Baseball is “still hashing out the specifics of the suspension and the means of getting control of the team away from her.”
One of the scenarios, sources indicated, calls for a multi-year suspension.
Schott, who owns two Cincinnati-area car dealerships and several other companies throughout the Midwest, has been the Reds’ majority owner for 12 years. She owns 43 percent of the team.