Baseball: Schott suspended for one year

MARGE SCHOTT, the owner of the Cincinnati Reds, has been suspended from the game for a year and fined dollars 25,000 ( pounds 17,500) after a major league investigation concluded that she had used racist remarks.

Baseball's executive council said the remarks were not in the best interests of baseball. 'Mrs Schott's remarks reflect the most base and demeaning type of racial and ethnic stereotyping. . .indicating an insensitivity that cannot be accepted or tolerated by anyone in baseball,' Bud Selig, the executive council chairman, said.

Schott, 64, has controlled the Reds since 1984. The suspension will begin from 1 March, but she can apply for reinstatement on 1 November if she attends and completes a 'multicultural training programme'.

Among remarks she was accused of making was to call two black Reds players, Dave Parker and Eric Davis, 'my million-dollar niggers'. In her deposition, Schott admitted she occasionally used the slurs and wondered why a Jewish employee was offended by a Nazi armband she had in her house.

Schott's lawyer, Robert Bennett, said she accepted the ruling but was 'very upset and very depressed that she has been singled out'. He added that the team's general manager, Jim Bowden, would run the club in her absence.

The decision drew criticism from Hank Aaron, the Atlanta Braves senior vice-president, who had hoped for tougher punishment. 'I don't think that baseball deserves to have somebody like Marge involved in it,' he said.