Mercury News: MLB Commissioner Bud Selig rebuffs San Jose mayor’s meeting request

SAN JOSE—Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has brushed back San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s formal request last week for a personal meeting to resolve issues holding up the Oakland A’s desired move to his city.

And Selig in his April 4 response added that Reed’s reference in an April 2 letter to “additional litigation” over the proposed A’s move “is neither productive nor consistent with process that the Athletics have initiated under our rules.”

Selig wrote that the committee he appointed more than four years ago to study the A’s plan for a downtown San Jose ballpark has been in “frequent contact” with the city.

“If you believe there is additional information that Major League Baseball should consider in completing its assessment,” Selig wrote, “the best way to proceed at this time continues to be for you to contact Robert Starkey or other members of the committee.”

Reed said Wednesday that he would follow the commissioner’s suggestion to set up a meeting with Starkey, a sports consultant and former accountant who had worked with Selig on stadium issues for the Minnesota Twins. Reed called it encouraging to get a response from the commissioner.

“It’s movement, it’s a little something,” Reed said. “I’d just like to have that conversation. What are the problems?”

Rosemont Cubs? Suburban mayor makes his pitch

As the Chicago Cubs’ quest for a fair stadium refinancing deal continues to drag on with the Wrigleyville community throwing up roadblocks to slow down the settlement process, a new and potentially viable option to Wrigley Field has emerged.

Rosemont mayor Brad Stephens told me this morning in a CSNChicago exclusive that he is willing to give the Cubs and the Ricketts family a 25-acre parcel of land in the village that is a prime piece of real estate large enough to accommodate a new ballpark as well as parking and anything else the Ricketts family would desire to have as a part of the new complex.

“The Chicago Cubs are being held hostage by the neighborhood as they look to run their business. We are willing to offer them a tremendous opportunity if they are interested. Bring the bricks and the ivy and we can get a deal done, ” Stephens told me this morning.

While this is highly unlikely, I for one encourage this type of press for the Cubs in their fight with the roof top owners.  It’s a shame that there actually is a professional team that is trying to pay for their own stadium and is stuck fighting the city over it.