No New Commissioner Named as Owners Blame Labor Talks : Baseball: Selig agrees to remain interim chief through player negotiations.

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Gearing up for a salary cap war with the players union, baseball’s owners postponed action on a new commissioner Wednesday and influenced Bud Selig to remain as titular boss through duration of the labor negotiations.

They also consolidated the power of chief negotiator Richard Ravitch and adopted a voting procedure that seems to strengthen Ravitch’s hand and reduce the impact of any potential splintering among the owners during the talks.

Dodger President Peter O’Malley was disappointed with the decision to delay selection of a commissioner.

“I think it’s time to get an outside, independent person,” he said from Los Angeles, unable to travel because of the earthquake and represented in Ft. Lauderdale by finance directors Bob Graziano and Bill Foltz.

“There are other (important) issues besides the labor negotiations. The labor negotiations could take 12 months, and I think it’s a mistake to go another 12 months (without a commissioner).

“Of course, there’s a lot of emotion at those meetings and maybe in another 30 days there’ll be a fresh outlook.”

Selig said he has encouraged owners to continue discussing the commissioner’s vacancy.

“In no way shape or form do I want to be commissioner or will I be,” he said, having ostensibly filled the role for 17 months as chairman of the executive council.

Selig had promised Congressional leaders considering repeal of baseball’s antitrust exemption that a commissioner would be elected in January.

He agreed to stay through the labor talks, he said, because “people have a right to change their minds as events unfold and it became increasingly clear that a large number of owners were not ready to elect a commissioner” with the industry continuing to face assorted problems.

That explanation did not sit well with Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D.-Ohio), whose judiciary subcommittee has held hearings into the exemption and may hold more.

“Baseball owners are demonstrating that they don’t want any check on their unlimited power,” Metzenbaum said.

Search committee chairman Bill Bartholmay, chairman of the Atlanta Braves, said it was simply apparent that no candidate could get the needed 21 votes.

Amid skepticism, he said his committee was prepared to make a recommendation but didn’t after receiving a memorandum from 11 clubs saying they would not vote for a new commissioner until the labor issue was resolved. He said another five or six clubs signed it after he received it.

“The obvious sentiment is that we are best served by continuity,” he said.

It is believed his list was down to two: Arnold Weber, retiring president of Northwestern, and Harvey Schiller, executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The next commissioner will have full authority over labor negotiations, Selig said.

Ravitch, meanwhile, insisted that he had not voiced an opinion on hiring a new commissioner, but it is known he strongly opposed it, fearing the meddling of a third party in labor talks.

The possibility of another mid-negotiations cave in was further diluted when Ravitch convinced owners to change the procedure by which they approve labor agreements or end a work stoppage.

Only majority approval was needed in the past. Now three fourths or 21 votes are required, underscoring a broader commitment by the owners to get what they want from a union that rejected a salary cap in 1990 and doesn’t seem to have changed its thinking.