Baseball owners approve sales of Marlins, Expos

AP Sports WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- Baseball owners approved the sales of the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos on Tuesday, setting the stage for team managements to switch just three days before they start spring training.

John Henry, whose group was given approval last month to buy the Boston Red Sox for $660 million from the Jean R. Yawkey Trust, is selling the Marlins to Jeffrey Loria for $158.5 million.

Loria is selling the Montreal franchise to Baseball Expos LP -- a Delaware limited partnership owned by the other 29 teams -- for $120 million, with baseball loaning him the difference between the prices.

Even though the sales won't officially close until later this week, baseball commissioner Bud Selig immediately announced a new management team for the Expos: team president Tony Tavares, vice president and general manager Omar Minaya and manager Frank Robinson.

Jeff Torborg, who had been the Expos' manager, was expected to be hired later Tuesday as the Marlins' manager and Larry Beinfest, who had been Montreal's interim general manager, was to become the Marlins' GM.

Selig at first contemplated having owners meet Tuesday in the Chicago area, but some teams didn't want to travel to a meeting for a vote in which the outcome was certain. Some teams already had mailed in their votes before the call.

Owners approved these deals with a speed unprecedented in recent decades. The Red Sox sale, agreed to on Dec. 20, was approved at a Jan. 16 meeting in Phoenix by a 29-0 vote, with the Yankees abstaining.

Henry's sale of the Marlins to Loria was approved even though they don't yet have a signed agreement.

But the start of spring training put pressure on baseball to speed the transactions. The Marlins and Expos open camp Friday, and Loria and Henry hope to close of the Marlins' sale by then.

Meanwhile, Selig will not testify at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the sport's antitrust exemption and instead will send his chief lawyer.

DuPuy and union head Donald Fehr are among witnesses scheduled to appear, a spokesman for committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said Monday.

Also scheduled to testify are Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, Minnesota Deputy Attorney General Lori Swanson, and Stan Brand, a lobbyist for the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the governing body of the minor leagues.

Sen. Paul D. Wellstone, D-Minn., and Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., proposed legislation Nov. 14 to strip baseball of its antitrust exemption as it applies to franchise moves and folding.

The House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to debate and consider amendments to the bill when it meets Wednesday.