BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJOR LEAGUES : Expansion Teams Expected to Get Approval Today

Denver and Miami are expected to gain final approval as the National League’s expansion franchises when major league baseball owners meet today by telephone conference call.

The new teams, which will be called the Colorado Rockies and either the Florida Marlins or South Florida Marlins, will begin play in 1993. They will be the first new major league teams since Seattle and Toronto joined the American League in 1977.

Each city needs nine of 12 votes from NL owners and eight of 14 votes from AL owners. Approval is considered a certainty.

“I don’t expect any serious problems,” Commissioner Fay Vincent said Thursday from Cape Cod, Mass.

Oakland third baseman Carney Lansford said he expects to complete rehabilitation from reconstructive knee surgery within two weeks. Lansford, 34, injured his knee in a New Year’s Eve snowmobile accident. He underwent surgery Jan. 16 to graft a leg tendon to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, which snapped when he landed after jumping clear of the machine as it plowed into a barbed-wire fence.

Milwaukee Brewer infielder Gary Sheffield will have his injured left thumb examined today after X-rays showed a “slight abnormality,” Manager Tom Trebelhorn said. Sheffield was activated Wednesday after being put on the disabled list June 15 because of a sprain and displaced tendon in his left wrist.