Selig claims teams in trouble

LOS ANGELES - Commissioner Bud Selig claims 25 percent of major league teams could go out of business if the sport&#39;s economic system isn&#39;t changed. <br> <br> ``I would say 6-to-8 can&#39;t exist another year, another year and a half,&#39;&#39; Selig said Thursday during a meeting with editors and reporters of the Los Angeles Times. ``We&#39;re talking about the immediate future. There&#39;s a lot of clubs that simply can&#39;t survive the status quo.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> No major league baseball team has folded since the National League cut from 12 teams to eight after the 1899 season. The last two times teams went bankrupt, both found buyers: Selig led a group that bought the Seattle Pilots in 1970 and moved them to Milwaukee, and Peter Angelos purchased the Baltimore Orioles for $173 million in 1993. <br> <br> Selig did not identify any endangered teams and said he is through trying to ``prop them up&#39;&#39; on his own with loans from baseball&#39;s central fund or his own financial connections. <br> <br> He called that the one area where he has been criticized the most internally - from owners of the more stable teams and his own staff. <br> <br> ``I&#39;m out of that business,&#39;&#39; Selig said. ``The lines of credit those clubs have will still exist, but most are out of credit. They&#39;re at the max. <br> <br> ``Baseball has $4 billion of debt, the bankers are nervous and the losses are very real. You know how serious the problem is when 6-to-8 clubs are for sale, including the Angels.&#39;&#39;

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