Selig's lawyer DuPuy to become baseball's No. 2 man

NEW YORK - Bob DuPuy will replace Paul Beeston as baseball&#39;s president and chief operating officer as part of an administrative reorganization commissioner Bud Selig plans to announce later this month. <br> <br> John McHale Jr., the chief operating officer of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, will join the commissioner&#39;s office and take over some of the areas that have reported to DuPuy, who has been baseball&#39;s executive vice president of administration and chief legal officer since September 1998. <br> <br> Selig declined comment Tuesday, but the moves, made with the sport in the midst of yet another contentious labor negotiation, were confirmed to The Associated Press by several high-ranking baseball officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. <br> <br> McHale did not return a telephone call, and Beeston and DuPuy declined comment. <br> <br> Beeston, his authority diminished in recent months, plans to leave his job as the No. 2 official in the sport on March 15, a high-ranking baseball official said Monday. Beeston had been part of baseball&#39;s bargaining team with the players&#39; association, along with Rob Manfred, the executive vice president of labor relations, and outside lawyer Howard Ganz. <br> <br> DuPuy, Selig&#39;s longtime lawyer, said Monday that Manfred, Ganz and himself will now be the bargaining representatives at the slow-moving talks to replace the labor contract that expired Nov. 7. In the shuffle, DuPuy could wind up hearing appeals of disciplinary decisions for on-field misconduct made by Bob Watson, one of the officials said. <br> <br> Beeston&#39;s departure was confirmed Tuesday by Sandy Alderson, the executive vice president of baseball operations. <br> <br> ``It is my understanding that Paul will be leaving the commissioner&#39;s office, and there will be a change in the negotiating team,&#39;&#39; Alderson said in Phoenix. ``That&#39;s for the commissioner to announce. There&#39;s no additional impact on the negotiations. From the union&#39;s point of view, perhaps there&#39;s some impact. <br> <br> ``There haven&#39;t been a lot of negotiations at this point. The union is not displaying any sense of urgency. There&#39;s only so much you can do to push forward at this point. The commissioner wants to get a collective bargaining agreement that makes sense. If it happens tomorrow, great. If it happens down the road, OK. It has to be the right deal.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Union head Donald Fehr said his side wasn&#39;t to blame. <br> <br> ``We are at a stage in which the clubs are once again changing their chief negotiator,&#39;&#39; he said. ``That and a number of other things makes negotiations difficult.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> McHale has been chief operating officer of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays since last May and before that had been president and chief executive officer of the Detroit Tigers since January 1995. Before that, he worked for the Colorado Rockies. <br> <br> His father, John McHale, played for the Tigers, served as Detroit&#39;s general manager, then became general manager and president of the Milwaukee Braves, where he got to know Selig. McHale later was president of the Montreal Expos. <br> <br> At the labor talks in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., there was a staff-level meeting between players and owners. Talks with full negotiating delegations are to resume Wednesday. <br> <br> Owners have made several proposals that haven&#39;t pleased players: <br> <br> - Impose a 50 percent luxury tax on the portions of payrolls above $98 million; <br> <br> - Increase the amount of shared locally generated revenue, after a deduction for ballpark expenses, from 20 percent to 50 percent; <br> <br> - Eliminate pay during suspensions for on-field misconduct; <br> <br> - Make all players eligible for the amateur draft, not just those in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico; <br> <br> - Eliminate salary arbitration for those players with 2-to-3 years of major league service currently eligible; and <br> <br> - Allow teams to release players after the exchange of proposed arbitration figures without having to give them any termination pay or salary. <br> <br> The union offered to increase revenue sharing from 20 to 22.5 percent, using a different system of dividing the money, one that benefits the low-revenue clubs more than management&#39;s plan. Players have not formally responded to the other proposals, management representatives say.