Dodgers vs. Angels in Game in June?

Baseball’s team owners Tuesday night began formal consideration of a proposal to introduce interleague play to the sport during the 1997 season. The proposal--which calls for each major league team to play 15 or 16 games per season against clubs from the opposite league--was presented to the sport’s ruling Executive Council on Tuesday night as the owners opened three days of quarterly meetings in Los Angeles.

Philadelphia Phillies owner Bill Giles reiterated that he hopes the measure is put to a vote during Thursday’s full ownership meeting, when it would need 21 votes among the 28 clubs to pass. John Harrington, the Boston Red Sox’s general partner, said he expected the proposal to be voted upon by the Executive Council on Tuesday night, and by the entire ownership body Thursday.

Other baseball officials seemed less certain that the matter will be resolved this week, but Harrington said, “There’s momentum for change, and this may spark a little more interest. There’s no way to test it unless we try it on a moderate basis. The real question will be Thursday: Can we get 21 votes?”

According to Giles, the landscape of the sport could look quite a bit different in 1998, when expansion franchises in Phoenix and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., are scheduled to begin play. Giles said Tuesday that he can envision baseball undergoing realignment--with one or more clubs changing divisions or even leagues--once the owners determine in which league (or leagues) the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays will play.

These are revolutionary times for the tradition-laden national pastime. The owners reshuffled the teams from four into six divisions in 1994, and last fall unveiled an expanded postseason--with mostly positive results. Now Giles, Harrington and other owners are pushing for the first regular-season games between American League and National League teams.

Giles said Tuesday afternoon that the owners haven’t conducted any in-depth studies about the effects of interleague play, but he’s pushing for it because of a “gut feeling” that it would improve attendance and television ratings. “I haven’t heard anyone against interleague play,” Giles said.

New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said, “We have to look at anything that could make the game more attractive, and that’s certainly a possibility.”

The plan submitted to the Executive Council on Tuesday night by the schedule format committee--headed by Harrington--calls for interleague play to begin on an “experimental” basis in 1997. Teams would play interleague games against clubs in the corresponding division of the opposite league--meaning AL East teams would play NL East clubs, the AL Central would play the NL Central and the AL West would play the NL West. Those division matchups eventually could be rotated on a yearly basis, Giles said.

“I believe that, in the long term, you should rotate the divisions,” said Giles, a member of the schedule format committee. “Most people who have dealt with it think that’s the way to go. The people in Philadelphia eventually would get to see Ken Griffey Jr. play.”

There are obstacles to be overcome. Interleague play would have to be approved by the Players Assn. and could set the stage for the elimination of the designated hitter. Union sources said Tuesday that the players would oppose the elimination of the DH, but don’t necessarily have any other major problems with interleague play.

There doesn’t even seem to be a consensus on the subject on the management side. “I’m probably a supporter,” Cleveland Indians General Manager John Hart said. “But at the same time, I have some reservations. . . . I don’t like to see pitchers hit. I like the DH because I think the fans like offense.”

The owners have given themselves until next January to determine in which league or leagues they’ll place the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays.

Placing one team in each league would give baseball six divisions of five clubs apiece, and would necessitate interleague play to enable each of the 15 teams in each league to play on the same day.

For now, however, the owners seem to be leaning toward putting both of the new teams in the AL, and adding two expansion franchises to the NL around the turn of the century. That wouldn’t eliminate the possibility of interleague play, but it would eliminate the necessity of it.

“I’m a big proponent of 15 and 15,” Giles said. “I don’t like four-team divisions [as the AL West and NL West now are]. I’m also a big proponent of interleague play. If you go 15 and 15, you have to have interleague play.”