Twins Are Feeling Born Again

The Minnesota Twins, in danger of being eliminated in major league baseball’s plans for contraction, will almost certainly play at least one more season in the Metrodome.

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal of a ruling that forces the Twins to fulfill the terms of their lease and play in their Minneapolis indoor stadium this season. The decision all but ends Commissioner Bud Selig’s hope to eliminate two low-revenue franchises before baseball’s March 31 opener.

Barring a strike or lockout, the Twins will begin their 42nd season on April 1 at Kansas City and play their home opener April 12 against Detroit. The Twins have played at the Metrodome since 1982. Bill Lester, executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission--which operates the Metrodome--called Monday’s ruling, “the ultimate nail in the coffin” of contraction.

In the short term, anyway.

Baseball would need the unlikely speedy intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the decision by Minnesota’s highest court. Selig’s spokesman, Rich Levin, said baseball was reviewing the decision. “The bottom line is, it looks like we’re going to be playing baseball in Minnesota in 2002,” said Dave St. Peter, the Twins’ senior vice president of business affairs.

Roger Magnuson, an attorney for major league baseball and the Twins, issued a statement expressing disappointment over the decision. “We will be exploring our legal options,” Magnuson said.

Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., who had filed a grievance to block contraction, said Monday’s decision will keep the major leagues at 30 teams this year.

The players’ union grievance claims the contraction vote violated its labor contract, which expired Nov. 7 but remains in force until there is a new agreement. Arbitrator Shyam Das has heard 11 days of testimony and is to resume the hearing today in New York.

“Obviously, we are very pleased that the matter in Minnesota appears to have been resolved for 2002, which is good news for the fans,” Fehr said. “We can now look forward to spring training and the continuation of the collective bargaining process.”

Denny Hocking, a utility infielder who is the Twins’ player representative, said that in light of Monday’s decision he did not expect contraction to take place this season. “With everything that has gone on with the injunction and the grievance, you have to sit there and figure that with the time-frame involved, this would not be possible,” he said.

Baseball owners voted Nov. 6 to eliminate two teams, without specifying which ones. But since last year the Twins and Montreal Expos were the prime candidates for elimination. The Twins ranked 29th out of 30 major league teams in local revenue last season with $32 million. The Expos were last with $9.8 million.

Fearing baseball would move to eliminate its team, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission sued to force the Twins to honor their lease, which expires after this season. On Nov. 16, Hennepin County District Judge Harry Seymour Crump issued an injunction. On Jan. 22, the Minnesota Court of Appeals, ruling on an appeal by major league baseball, unanimously upheld Crump’s ruling that the Metrodome’s operators could suffer “irreparable harm” if the Twins bought out the final year of their stadium lease rather than fielding a team.

Selig still might announce a one-year postponement of the contraction plan. That decision could accompany approval of the pending sale of the Florida Marlins to Montreal owner Jeffrey Loria, after which Selig’s office would assume control of the Expos and run the franchise for the 2002 season.

On Monday, baseball owners moved forward with plans to meet Feb. 12--two days before the start of spring training--in the Chicago area to approve the sales of the Expos and Marlins. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on baseball’s antitrust exemption the next day, a spokesman for committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said Monday.

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Staff Writer Jason Reid and Times wire reports contributed to this story.