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State lawmakers say they're sending a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and Twins owner Carl Pohlad, asking them to delay a vote that could eliminate the Twins. Baseball's owners will hold a meeting on Tuesday in Chicago and Selig has said in the past week that they'll discuss eliminating two teams. The Twins are one of four teams mentioned and one media outlet says the owners have the votes to eliminate the ballclub as early as Tuesday.

	ON THE RECORD Here's a glimpse of what the major players have said on the record. A spokesman for the Twins say the owners have not scheduled a contraction vote for Tuesday and says the team is moving ahead with their plans for the 2002 season. Major League Baseball has imposed a $1 million fine on any team that comments about contraction. Twins owner Carl Pohlad was not available to comment to MPR but told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he hasn't asked Major League Baseball to buy him out but he said he would consider it if the other owners asked him. He also told the Pioneer Press that "I've furnished a team here for 15 years and put $150 million cash into it, and I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm tired of it. A business has to pay for itself. Nobody in this town in the last 15 years has given as much as I have to baseball." Major League Baseball won't comment specifically about contraction but Bud Selig told a group of reporters at the World Series in Arizona that everything was on the table as the owners consider a new bargaining agreement with the players union. "Can it be worked out for 2002?" Selig said. "Time will tell. But I wouldn't rule it out." He also said "I had an owner say to me the other day that he believes our greatest mistake was too much expansion in a short period of time. That's a fair assessment for people to make." An official for Major League Baseball Players' Association says the only thing he knows about contraction is what he reads in the newspaper. When asked if he was concerned about contraction he replied, "If it became I reality, I'm sure we would be." Both state Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe and House Speaker Steve Sviggum sent a letter on November 2, 2001 to Major League Baseball asking them to delay any contraction vote (See letter). The two lawmakers along with Gov. Jesse Ventura are forming a task force to examine how the state can assist in building new stadiums for sports teams. Moe has supported using public tax dollars for a new stadium while Sviggum has said he would support limited funding like eliminating the state tax for construction materials. When asked about the Twins situation, Gov. Ventura said "What would you ask me to do for them? Take them over as the taxpayers' Minnesota Twins? It's a private industry and I'm not going to discuss it." Listen. Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch said attorneys in his office are looking at legal strategies to stop the owners' vote. Hatch said "This isn't a situation where this is one league, one business simply saying we're closing down an office," Hatch said. "These are separate businesses owned by separate people making their own income and making a decision to buy out competition, if you will, to improve their own value." - Tom Scheck, MPR News

House Speaker Steve Sviggum says he and Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe sent the letter to open up the lines of communication between Major League Baseball's owners and state lawmakers.

The Legislature and Gov. Ventura's office announced plans for a sports facilities task force last summer. Sviggum says appointments were delayed by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Sviggum has been opposed to using tax dollars to build a stadium. But he says he believes the issue deserves a thorough examination.

"It's wrong to not treat it as a concern or reality and to show some leadership in trying to bring together a solution," Sviggum said. "Now will that happen, can we have a solution, are there some options? We'll see what the task force comes forward with."

Sviggum says he isn't guaranteeing the task force will recommend new stadiums for the Twins or the Vikings and University of Minnesota.

Twins owner Carl Pohlad has been lobbying the state for a new stadium since 1997. Stadium financing plans were brought to the floor in both the Senate and House last session, but did not receive a vote. Some media reports say Pohlad's frustrated with the lack of progress.

Pohlad told the St. Paul Pioneer Press he never brought up contraction, but would consider it if other owners asked him. Baseball started toying with the idea as a way to fix baseball's economic problems.

Twins spokesman Dave St. Peter says Pohlad would not comment for this report. Major League Baseball has said it will fine any team officials $1 million if they comment about contraction. St. Peter says the Twins are moving forward with their plans to play baseball next year.

"It's not the first chapter of uncertainty that this organization has dealt with or our fans have dealt with. Just as in previous time of crisis, we've asked fans to be hang in there and to be patient. And hopefully in the early part of next week we will have decisions that are made that will allow us to move forward with the exciting 2002 major league season," St. Peter said.

On his radio show, Gov. Ventura said eliminating the Twins or any other teams won't fix baseball's financial problems. Ventura said he doesn't support using tax dollars to for a Twins stadium.

"If they think that eliminating two teams is the fix that the league needs, I will go on record and say that they are badly mistaken, because it's not going to change anything. You will still have the haves and have nots. I think if they continue down this road that you'll end up with about 10 teams," Ventura said.

Both Ventura and Sviggum say if baseball's owners vote to contract when they meet next week, there's little the state could do.

Attorney General Mike Hatch says his office is looking to see if baseball owners would violate any anti-trust laws if they eliminate two teams. "Depending upon what our evaluation of the law is and what the terms of that agreement is, we could or might look at a suit but, mind you I don't want to overbuild expectation here it depends on what the law says and what the facts are. But if we did, such litigation would occur sooner rather than later," according to Hatch.

Some baseball economists believe the team isn't going anywhere. Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of sports economics at Smith College in Massachusetts, says contraction is ill-advised because they owners would have to pay at least $600 million to two baseball owners and minor league affiliates as well as defend itself from lawsuits.

"I happen to have enough faith in enough owners to make me think that they could hold this thing up and they're not going to let this thing go through on Monday or Tuesday and they'll make some statement to derive bargaining leverage," according to Zimbalist.

A spokesperson for the Major League Baseball Players Association wouldn't comment on tape for this report but said they're watching the contraction issue closely. When asked if they were concerned about the issue of contraction, the spokesman said if it becomes reality they'd be very concerned.