Selig doesn't rule out Marlins move if new stadium

BasesLoadedWalk · April 22, 2005

Of course, one can assume that it's posturing but since we can't trust that Huizenga would give the Marlins a fair lease, it's never out of the question. :plain

Selig doesn't rule out Marlins move if new stadium isn't built

By JORGE ROJAS AND BARRY JACKSON

Miami Herald

NEW YORK - As the Florida Marlins' bid for state stadium funding continues to meet resistance, baseball commissioner Bud Selig on Thursday reiterated his desire for the team to remain in South Florida but wouldn't rule out allowing them to leave if they don't get a new ballpark.

"We like a team in South Florida," he said. "We want to keep them there. They're optimistic. They need a new stadium. ... Look, they've got a tough crowd, but we love South Florida and I'm hopeful they'll get a new stadium. There is certainly no keeping them there without one."

Selig made the comments at his New York office in a gathering of sports editors of major U.S. newspapers.

Asked about the Marlins' two World Series titles, he said, "First one they won, the man Wayne Huizenga dismantled the team a day or two later and said he lost $40 million and he had. ...

"But when we talk about revenue sharing, big-market teams have a right to expect small-market teams to be profitable. If you're sitting in a stadium and it's clearly inefficient in doing that ...

"You look at Minnesota, Washington and Miami, those are major-league markets by any way you measure."

When asked about Tampa Bay, he said, "They've struggled. There's no question about it."

Selig said he will remain commissioner until no later than 2009. "I promise you I will be gone. By that time, I will be 75 and if I'm not gone, you should get somebody in a jacket here to make sure that I am gone."

On Jose Canseco, Selig said, "I'm not going to comment. ... There's really no appropriate response. He's entitled to his opinion. He certainly wasn't blackballed by baseball. ... The idea that we knew and we turned a blind eye ... that's revisionist history."

When asked if there would be debate in Barry Bonds' bid for the home run mark because of steroid allegations: "I don't want to comment on any of that until I know for sure what happened." If he breaks Hank Aaron's record: "We'll celebrate that like we'd celebrate anything else."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ts/11456227.htm