NL Realignment Order Dropped : Baseball: Decision results in Cubs withdrawing suit against Vincent’s plan.

In a development anticipated since commissioner Fay Vincent was forced to resign, baseball’s executive council rescinded his order for National League realignment Thursday, and the Chicago Cubs responded by withdrawing the suit they filed to block that order.

Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers, chairman of the executive council, said baseball could now look at all aspects of realignment in a spirit of consensus and cooperation, and appointed a six-member committee to investigate it.

Bill Giles of the Philadelphia Phillies, a member of the committee, cited concurrent negotiations for a new television contract and said the committee will look at the possibility of more creative avenues.

Among them: Dividing each league into three divisions, creating an extra round of playoffs, inter-league play and switching teams from one league to the other. He said the committee hopes to have a report by January or February.

Vincent, using his best-interest-of-baseball powers, ordered the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals to join the new Colorado Rockies in the West Division in 1993, and the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves to join the new Florida Marlins in the East.

The Cubs, citing the loss of cable revenue with later starting times in the West and irreparable harm to fans by the loss of traditional rivalries, obtained a preliminary injunction from federal district judge Suzanne B. Conlon on July 23.

Conlon, responding to papers filed by the Cubs and commissioner’s office in Chicago on Thursday, dissolved the injunction and vacated her ruling, meaning it can’t be used as precedent if the powers of the commissioner are again questioned. The commissioner’s office, now under control of the executive council, also withdrew its appeal of Conlon’s initial ruling. A hearing on the appeal was scheduled for next Wednesday.

Selig said the commissioner’s powers remain intact and will be reviewed by the restructuring committee. He said the possibility of the San Francisco Giants’ move to Florida made a complete study of realignment even more sensible, and added that realignment wasn’t going to happen in ’93 anyway because of the need to get the schedule out and the uncertainty of the court case.

Vincent’s use of his best-interest powers concerned many clubs, but Selig would not discuss rumors that some clubs assured the Cubs they would press for realignment to be rescinded if the commissioner was forced out.

Selig described Thursday’s development as a “prudent and reasonable course of action” that will give baseball “a welcome opportunity to examine this difficult question without undue haste and in the spirit of cooperation” rather than confrontation.

Stanton Cook, chairman of the Cubs and a member of the realignment committee, said he was pleased to have the issue resolved and that the Cubs “look forward to working with all the other clubs to explore the issues of league alignment for the future.”