Bud Selig is still not concerned about Dodgers

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The Dodgers have yet to add a significant player this winter, and club president Dennis Mannion said today that the team has thousands of season-ticket holders yet to renew.

From the time Frank and Jamie McCourt initiated divorce proceedings in October, Commissioner Bud Selig has said the Dodgers are in the good hands of Mannion, General Manager Ned Colletti and Manager Joe Torre. The ownership of the team could remain uncertain until after a trial, scheduled to start May 24, but Selig said today he remained unconcerned about the operation of the Dodgers.

‘I don’t have any concern until I feel like I have something to be concerned about,’ Selig said at the owners’ meetings. ‘We’ll let the situation play out.’

Selig is scheduled to meet today with a new advisory committee, including Angels Manager Mike Scioscia and Torre. Selig said the committee would discuss the possible expansion of instant replay and how to implement the crisper postseason schedule the commissioner has promised.

The players’ union suggested last month that the first round be expanded to a best-of-seven series, rather than the current best-of-five.

‘We’ll talk about it,’ Selig said. ‘The problem is, everybody wants to talk about us going into November, and then they want to add to the schedule.’

That appears to be a non sequitur. The two extra games, if played, would knock out two off days from a postseason schedule already overloaded with them. The Philadelphia Phillies played nine games in 23 days between the end of the regular season and the start of the World Series.

‘I didn’t say we can’t do better,’ Selig said. ‘We can. There are days we could eliminate.’

Scioscia also has called for a reduction in the number of days between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs. The Angels had three days off before starting the playoffs last season.

The lengthy postseason schedule enabled the New York Yankees to use three starting pitchers on the way to the World Series championship.

Selig declined to discuss Mark McGwire‘s steroid confession beyond the statement he issued on Monday, other than to say he wrote the statement himself on Sunday, revising it repeatedly while watching his hometown Green Bay Packers lose to the Arizona Cardinals, 51-45, in overtime.

‘Fortunately, they scored so many points and gave up so many points,’ Selig said. ‘I had about five hours.’

-- Bill Shaikin in Phoenix