14 Th6 Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 8, 1995
I
Baylor named NL
manager of the year
If Cleveland *...d
owner Art Modell ... .: . .. ...
gets his way, his ' : f tmi
football team will **
not be calling 63- r . y.."
year old Cleveland
Stadium Its home
after this season.
Modell's proposed'
move of the
Browns to
Baltimore is one
of the topics of
discussion at this
week's NFL
meetings.
. AP PHOTO
NFL owners discuss league's turbulent times
tGRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) - Art indicated that while there was initial op- mendations. Still, the Browns will be a move after the season - in this c
Modell declared yesterday that the position, the owners are likely to let lame duck team for the rest of this season. about 90 miles east to Orlando.
BWns' move to Baltimore is all but Modell, a league insider for 35 years, Modell, who hadn't missed a game in Denver, Chicago and Cincinnati
irrevocable, but he also joined fellow move on. Approval of23 of34 owners is the 35 years he's owned the Browns want new stadiums, as do Pittsbu
owners in calling for stability in the NFL. needed. beforehis no-show Sunday, said he won't Philadelphia and Washington.
It's a very, very serious problem," Modell denied a report on ABC's attendthethreeremaininggamesinCleve- Tagliabue and the owners also
NEW YORK (AP) -Don Baylor,
who led the Colorado Rockies to the
playoffs in only their third season, was
voted National League Manager of the
Year on Tuesday.
Baylor received 19 of 28 first-place
votes and nine
seconds for 122
points in voting
by the Baseball
Writers Associa-
tion of America,
easily defeatingt
Davey Johnson.
Baylor was the
only manager
named on every
ballot.
J o h n s o n , Baylor
pushed out by
the Reds after leading Cincinnati to
the NL Central title, got eight firsts,
15 seconds and four thirds for 89
points.
Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox
was third with one first, one second
and 12 thirds for 20 points, followed
by Terry Collins of Houston (11
points), Jim Riggleman of the Chicago
Cubs (6), Dallas Green of the New
York Mets (3) and Bruce Bochy of San
Diego (1).
Baylor is the first former MVP to
win the manager's award. He was the
AL Most Valuable Player in 1979,
when he played for the California An-
gels.
Under Baylor, the Rockies were 77-
67 last season and won the wild-card
spot by one game over the Astros.
Colorado finished one game ahead of
Los Angeles in the NL West.
Baylor, 46, was hired by the Rockies
in October 1992 and has led them to a
three-year record of 197-226.
As a player, he was with seven divi-
sion champions, three pennant win-
ners and one World Series champion:
the 1987 Minnesota Twins.
Baylor, who retired as a player in
1988, had a .260 career average with
338 homers and 1,276 RBIs. His best
season was 1979, when he hit .296
with 36 homers and 139 RBIs.
He was hit by a pitch 267 times, a
major league record.
ase,
also
rgh,
ad-
Modell said of franchise movement after
the Browns joined the Raiders and Rams
as the third team to move within a year.
"It's something we have to address with
the utmost urgency."
Modell argued his case at the NFL
o vnersmeetings,while Cleveland Mayor
Michael White, appealed to the group to
stop the Browns from leaving.
"They are the Cleveland Browns and
they will be the Cleveland Browns until
the owners in the NFL say they are no
longer the Cleveland Browns," White
said.
The 70-year-old Modell, however,
ruled out any chance of the Browns stay-
ing in Cleveland- even if the city builds
him a new stadium or improves the old
one.
"The bridge is down, burned, disap-
peared," Modell said. "There's not even a
canoe there for me."
While commissioner Paul Tagliabue
said "I have no idea" how the owners
would vote on the move, an informal poll
Monday night football that he was $50
million in debt, claiming the Brownshave
lost $21 million over the past two years.
The Browns-to-Baltimore bombshell
gave the meetings an entirely new focal
point. There was even a demonstration of
about 30 people protesting against the
move outside the hotel where the meet-
ings took place.
Also yesterday:
O Dallas owner Jerry Jones and his
favorite antagonist, 49ers president
Carmen Policy, competed for cameras on
the day after Jones answered the NFL's
$300 million suit over revenue sharing
with a $750 million antitrust suit of his
own. Policy blamed Jones for some ofthe
financial problems leading teams to relo-
cate; Jones blamed the NFL.
Dueling news conferences featuring
Modell and White, who each argued their
case over the Browns' relocation to Bal-
timore.
That won't happen at least until January
while Tagliabue decides on his recom-
land.
It was White who best stated the prob-
lem facing the NFL -the "franchise free
agency" that the Browns move implies.
"What's the impact for the NFL if it
allows that team to kick the city in the
teeth?" Cleveland's mayor asked.
"It happened to Oakland, nobody said
anything. It happened in Los Angeles,
nobody said anything. It's happening in
Houston, nobody said a word. How many
cities are going to be threatened in this
way before the NFL recognizes that it's
bad forthe country and bad forthe league?"
And that's the problem the league is
facing.
While the Browns' move tops the
agenda, the owners were also preparing
to take up Bud Adams' desire to move the
Oilers from Houston to Nashville, Tenn.,
something Adams discussed again on
Tuesday.
Tagliabue has already pledged to fill
the void in Los Angeles, perhaps with the
Seattle Seahawks, and Tampa Bay could
dressed a problem they didn't anticipate
when the salary cap was instituted - a
growing gap in revenues between haves
and have nots.
One reasonis that revenues the "haves"
get from luxury boxes, increased parking
fees and other non-shared money go into
the cap after they reach a certain point,
increasing the cap and, in Tagliabue's
words, "forcing some teams to spend
money they don't have."
Another is that the cap has been used in
ways that have allowed teams to pay rela-
tively small salaries with large signing
bonuses that are amortized over several
years. Modell said he borrowed $5 million
for a signing bonus for Andre Rison, be-
cause he didn't have the cash on hand. He
noted that teams like New England and
Dallas had the money for their players.
"Jerry Jones signed Deion Sanders and
all he had to do was to go to his check-
book," he said. "Bob Kraft signed Drew
Bledsoe and all he had to do was go to his
checkbook. I can't do that."
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