Now that I've had a chance to partially cover the hearings and lay down my positions on the primary labor issues, we can move onto some of the more recent happenings. While contraction appears to be stalled at the moment, the mere possibility has set off a chain of other activities.

The Yawkey Trust, the charitable foundation that owns most of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, and NESN, has been interested in getting out of baseball for some time. This off-season they put the team up for sale. As previously discussed, it looks as though Montreal Expos owner Jeffery Loria will purchase the Florida Marlins from John Henry, leaving Henry without a team. Henry wants to stay in baseball, so he joined a group bidding on the Red Sox.

We currently have a legal entanglement because the representatives of the trust accepted the bid from Henry's group over a higher bid from a group led by Miles Prentice. Although the representatives claim they chose Henry's bid over Prentice's due to concern about Prentice's financing, there are legitimate concerns as to whether or not MLB and Bud Selig pressured their decision. The Massachusetts' Attorney General is looking into the matter.

To further complicate things, Charles Dolan, who also placed a bid for the team, has upped his bid in the hopes that he might be selected as the new owner. The fact that the MLB owners will have to approve any sale before it can become official probably did influence the decision to some extent. While the Henry bid is significantly lower than those of Dolan and Prentice, there is precedence for his approval by MLB. If the trust were to propose a sale to the owners that was vetoed, it would likely cost them money.

Meanwhile, Donald Watkins has accelerated his quest to buy a major league team by targeting the Twins. Watkins, who we previously discussed as a possible buyer for the Marlins, wants to purchase the team as an investment and intends to build a privately financed stadium in Minnesota. His credentials appear to be in order, and he would likely receive approval by owners if sold the team, though there is still some question as to whether Pohlad will sell rather than continuing to pursue contraction.

Watkins' desire to build the stadium without taxpayer assistance has also likely raised some eyebrows. Although the Giants financed their own ballpark, it is not common practice and not something that the majority of owners would probably like to see become the norm.

If everything continues to move down the current paths, owners could approve the sales of four teams at their meeting this Wednesday, with Montreal being purchased by MLB until another owner can be found. However, it is very unlikely that the Twins sale would be finalized by then, as I believe that while he has met with Selig, Watkins has yet to sit down with Pohlad.

In addition to the legal troubles caused by these sales, there are a number of practical baseball-related problems as to management and direction of the involved organizations. New ownership almost always means new management. While Minnesota did hire a new manager last week, Florida still has numerous holes in their infrastructure. Loria is expected to bring many of his people with him when he purchases the team, but the hour is already late. Assuming Loria takes his people from Montreal, then that team will need to find new staff. Since MLB will be running the club, many of the personnel will likely be loaned to the organization, leaving endless questions of conflicting interests.

Last and in reality probably least, we come to the matter of the loans. It has come to the attention of those members of the public still following the machinations of their beloved sport that Commissioner Selig has broken one of the rules that baseball uses to govern itself. During his time as Acting Commissioner and before his ownership of the Brewers was placed into trust, Bud Selig's team received a loan from a company affiliated with Minnesota owner Carl Pohlad. The owners have rules against lending money to each other directly or indirectly, and if such loans are to be allowed at all, they are supposed to be brought to the attention of and approved by the owners as a group. Since this initial disclosure, two other questionable loans have also come to light. The St. Louis Cardinals loaned money from a bank whose largest shareholder is an owner of the Cincinnati Reds. Additionally, Selig gave tacit approval for a loan between a company owned by Colorado Rockies' owner Jerry McMorris and a Pohlad-owned company.

We could certainly raise questions regarding the favors that these loans might inspire, and that is quite obviously why the rule exists. Pohlad theoretically stands to gain more through contraction of his team than he would through a standard sale, and while McMorris has been one of the leading supporters of contraction, Selig has clearly led the charge.

The statement from the owners and Selig seems to be very unified. McMorris somewhat reasonably argues that it was not a loan to the Rockies, but a separate company. Selig rationalizes that teams had to do everything they could during that time to compensate for the losses caused by the 1995 labor troubles. Other owners not directly involved have commented that the rule is loosely utilized and that the loans would have received approval if voted upon anyway.

I don't feel the individual results of these transactions should be the main issue. The fact is that a rule should be obeyed as long as it is on the books. If the group decides that a provision has become outdated and archaic, then appropriate actions should be taken to repeal it. Selig's duties as Commissioner include the responsibility of overseeing baseball's self-governization. These loans serve as blatant examples of negligence in that duty.

Selig's loyalty is to the owners; that is the nature of the Commissionership as a position whose salary is paid by the owners. However, I think that his reign has been a lesson showing that people still connected to individual teams should not hold the job, if only because they are easy targets for questions of conflict. While one should not expect impartiality from the commissioner, Selig's positions on a variety of issues are not beneficial to the owners. The owners need a leader who will realize that however profitable it might seem, they cannot crush the union, so they should stop trying and instead make every effort to work with the players association. Above all, they need someone who will not stir up dirt when the fans are relaxed and focusing on the game rather than the financial machine of baseball.

I would call for his resignation, but I don't think that the owners would select a superior replacement at this time, so I choose the evil I know over that which I do not know. All I can hope is that the comments made by others will force Selig to re-evaluate his position with positive results. This Commissioner needs to simply focus on building consensus for the good ideas of others instead of his own, as every last one of Selig's pseudo-original competitive balance theories have placed the game in additional peril. If and when baseball negotiates its way out from under this snowdrift, the owners can and should consider replacing Bud. These are indeed dark days, but I have to believe the dawn will eventually come.