ASAP Files California Ballot Measure to Initiate Government Take-Over of Major League Baseball.

Sports Editors/Baseball Writers & Columnists

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2002

The Association to Save the American Pastime ("ASAP"), an organization dedicated to preserving the national pastime, announced today that it has submitted a ballot initiative to the California Attorney General's Office as the first step in a government take-over of Major League Baseball.

The initiative, if adopted by California voters, would enact the Baseball Protection Act, providing a framework for the state's acquisition of the five California Major League Baseball teams (the Anaheim Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Oakland Athletics, the San Diego Padres, and the San Francisco Giants). The Act would create the California Department of Baseball, which would acquire (using the state's eminent domain powers) and operate the California Major League Baseball teams on behalf of the people of California.

As part of a broader goal to have all Major League Baseball teams acquired by government entities, the Act also empowers the Department of Baseball to encourage, and provide assistance to, efforts by other states and provinces to acquire and operate Major League Baseball teams. The Department would also seek to establish a confederation of governmental departments of baseball. This confederation would establish rules and regulations governing competition among the Major League Baseball teams that have been acquired by the various states and provinces, with the ultimate goal of replacing Major League Baseball.

"This proposed legislation represents an initial, incremental step in the process of taking the game of Major League Baseball back from the greed-obsessed owners and players who have taken control of the game," said ASAP founder Nick Morosoff. "The preferred solution would be a federal take-over of all U.S.-based Major League teams," Morosoff continued. "However, as California provides a process for proposing legislation directly to the voters, we have decided to take this opportunity to do so. In the event that, in the aftermath of the coming strike, the federal government does not take action, we will push forward with this grass-roots approach, centered on the respective states."

The text of the proposed legislation can be found at: http:/www.caag.state.ca.us/initiatives/activeindex.htm

About ASAP

The Association to Save the American Pastime ("ASAP") was founded for the purpose of soliciting government efforts to take control of Major League Baseball. ASAP believes that the Major League Baseball Players' Association and baseball owners have repeatedly displayed complete disregard for our national pastime and its fans, consistently betraying the American people who have entrusted to them this valuable piece of our national heritage. ASAP maintains that Major League Baseball, similar to our national and state parks systems, represents a national treasure that can no longer be subjected to the whims and greed of warring, private-sector factions (each of whose only objective is to maximize its share of the vast revenues that Major League Baseball offers, always at the expense of the game and its fans).

As a result, ASAP maintains that it is not only appropriate, but imperative, that government entities act to take control of the game at the Major League level. ASAP believes that the power of eminent domain should be utilized now to acquire baseball teams, at a time when baseball ownership has recently gone on the record with complaints about financial hardships. As a result, owners will be very hard-pressed to establish significant values for their franchises in the eminent domain proceedings that would be used to wrest Major League Baseball teams from their control. Moreover, following acquisition by eminent domain, government entities could impose a reasonably competitive, government-imposed salary structure, resulting in reduced operating costs and thereby enhancing the revenue-generating opportunity that Major League Baseball would represent for taxpayers. Accordingly, ASAP believes that the government take-over of baseball could ultimately be accomplished in a manner that is not merely revenue-neutral, but revenue-enhancing. ASAP is headquartered in Hollywood, California.

(c) 2002 ASAP. All rights reserved.