Baseball Guru
12-04-2001, 08:31 AM
By BRIAN BAKST
Associated Press Writer
December 3, 2001, 7:32 AM EST
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Encouraged by correspondence from Minnesota Twins fans, Alabama businessman Donald Watkins said Monday he is more intent on pursuing the beleaguered franchise.
Watkins, who has talked with the Tampa Bay Devils Rays about buying that team, talked with his lawyer and other advisers last week to discuss how to move ahead with a possible bid for the Twins. He hopes major league baseball will let him talk with both clubs.
"I am very tempted to pick up the phone and call Jerry Bell," Watkins said, referring to the Twins' president. "I really want to do it now. I don't know the protocol. This game is new to me, and I don't want to commit a foul by doing something in a good-faith effort to explore the Twins opportunity."
Baseball owners voted Nov. 6 to fold two teams before next season, with the Twins and the Montreal Expos the likely candidates. An injunction forces the Twins to play in 2002, and the team's appeal won't be heard until Dec. 27.
Almost three weeks after the vote, Watkins' name surfaced as a potential buyer for the Twins. Since then, he's received supportive e-mails, faxes, letters and phone calls.
"I don't believe it was organized," he said. "I do believe it was spontaneous. I know it was genuine because people had to figure out how they can reach me, and it was widespread."
Watkins said he would keep the team in Minnesota and formulate a ballpark plan that requires little or no public investment.
In a telephone interview, Watkins wouldn't say what he would be willing to spend on a stadium or the team and refused to discuss his net worth. As part of his pursuit of the Devil Rays, he provided financial information to major league baseball.
Watkins runs a commercial bank in Birmingham, Ala., and a privately held energy company. Until this year, he was a trustee at Alabama State University, where he pushed for a privately financed football stadium.
He is politically active and a prominent lawyer who has represented Birmingham's mayor and, in another case, a football player at the center of a scandal that left powerhouse Auburn University on probation in the early 1990s.
Team owner Carl Pohlad has sent contradictory signals about his intentions. His lawyers are fighting to clear obstacles to contraction while his son, Jim Pohlad, gave was more positive about the franchise's future in a recent meeting attended by Mike Ciresi, a Minneapolis lawyer recruiting Minnesota businessmen to bid for the team.
Ciresi said he came away from that meeting convinced that the Pohlad family "will do everything that's necessary and appropriate" to keep the Twins in Minnesota. Twins executive vice president of business affairs Dave St. Peter said Monday the Pohlads are open to speaking with potential buyers.
Watkins wants sole ownership and isn't interested in holding a share of the team.
"I don't expect to be an absentee owner who is solely there to siphon money out of Minnesota," he said. "I'm willing to invest and reinvest in that team and in that state over a considerable number of years both monetarily and personally."
Associated Press Writer
December 3, 2001, 7:32 AM EST
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Encouraged by correspondence from Minnesota Twins fans, Alabama businessman Donald Watkins said Monday he is more intent on pursuing the beleaguered franchise.
Watkins, who has talked with the Tampa Bay Devils Rays about buying that team, talked with his lawyer and other advisers last week to discuss how to move ahead with a possible bid for the Twins. He hopes major league baseball will let him talk with both clubs.
"I am very tempted to pick up the phone and call Jerry Bell," Watkins said, referring to the Twins' president. "I really want to do it now. I don't know the protocol. This game is new to me, and I don't want to commit a foul by doing something in a good-faith effort to explore the Twins opportunity."
Baseball owners voted Nov. 6 to fold two teams before next season, with the Twins and the Montreal Expos the likely candidates. An injunction forces the Twins to play in 2002, and the team's appeal won't be heard until Dec. 27.
Almost three weeks after the vote, Watkins' name surfaced as a potential buyer for the Twins. Since then, he's received supportive e-mails, faxes, letters and phone calls.
"I don't believe it was organized," he said. "I do believe it was spontaneous. I know it was genuine because people had to figure out how they can reach me, and it was widespread."
Watkins said he would keep the team in Minnesota and formulate a ballpark plan that requires little or no public investment.
In a telephone interview, Watkins wouldn't say what he would be willing to spend on a stadium or the team and refused to discuss his net worth. As part of his pursuit of the Devil Rays, he provided financial information to major league baseball.
Watkins runs a commercial bank in Birmingham, Ala., and a privately held energy company. Until this year, he was a trustee at Alabama State University, where he pushed for a privately financed football stadium.
He is politically active and a prominent lawyer who has represented Birmingham's mayor and, in another case, a football player at the center of a scandal that left powerhouse Auburn University on probation in the early 1990s.
Team owner Carl Pohlad has sent contradictory signals about his intentions. His lawyers are fighting to clear obstacles to contraction while his son, Jim Pohlad, gave was more positive about the franchise's future in a recent meeting attended by Mike Ciresi, a Minneapolis lawyer recruiting Minnesota businessmen to bid for the team.
Ciresi said he came away from that meeting convinced that the Pohlad family "will do everything that's necessary and appropriate" to keep the Twins in Minnesota. Twins executive vice president of business affairs Dave St. Peter said Monday the Pohlads are open to speaking with potential buyers.
Watkins wants sole ownership and isn't interested in holding a share of the team.
"I don't expect to be an absentee owner who is solely there to siphon money out of Minnesota," he said. "I'm willing to invest and reinvest in that team and in that state over a considerable number of years both monetarily and personally."