1963

Clark Griffith has baseball in his muscles and his brains. Since 1995 he's been trying to buy back the Minnesota Twins, which his father, Calvin Griffith, sold for $64 million in 1984 to Carl Pohlad, ending 65 years of franchise ownership by the Griffith family. Calvin, who died in 1999, was the adopted nephew of Clark Griffith, inventor of the screwball and Hall of Fame pitcher, nicknamed the "Old Fox," who, in 1919 mortgaged his Montana ranch to buy a controlling interest in the Washington Senators. Calvin was bat boy and mascot for the Senators in the 19205, went on to work in major league baseball, inherited the Senators in 1955 and moved them to Minneapolis in 1960. Clark Griffith II joined the organization three years out of Dartmouth, focusing on player development, player relations, government relations, finance and business. Anticipating events, Clark earned a law degree at William Mitchell College of Law in 1986. He specializes in antitrust, business operations and corporate governance, but also practices sports law, and speaks and publishes on baseball's future, labor relations and team ownership. Clark's latest bid to win back the Twins is enmeshed in questions over whether Pohlad really means to sell, whether Minneapolis can keep the Twins franchise and the need for a new stadium. On top of that is a possible asking price of $ 120 million and competition from a number of bidders including a front-runner, Donald Watkins, a wealthy lawyer and businessman, who hopes to become the first black major league baseball owner.

Ken Novack, vice chairman of AOL and founder Steve Case's long-time confidant and counsel, emerged during the summer to quell rumors that Case was losing support on the AOL Time-Warner board following investor discontent with AOL's accounting practices. Ken told The New York Times there were no divisions on the board, that Case was united with the board in his support of chief executive Richard Parsons and that there was no movement to seek Cases removal.

White-collar-crime lawyer Frank Wohl represents Elana Waksal Posner, daughter of Samuel D. Waksal, former chief executive of ImClone Systems, charged with insider trading. Frank said his clients did nothing wrong when they sold about 10 percent of their ImClone holdings "based on public information at the same time many other investors were selling."

Jim and Catherine Bell and Bob and Susan Dresser attended Sandy Sanders at his marriage to Olga Panteleyeva in West Lafayette, Indiana, in March and were shocked to learn that everyone there knew Sandy only by his given name, John. Also present: Sandys daughter, Nicole; son, John; brother, Tom; and Olga's daughter, Olona. Sandy teaches agricultural economics at Purdue; Olga formerly taught marketing at the Food Institute in Kiev, Ukraine.

Kirk Vernon splits time between a West Coast catalog consulting firm and a Norwalk, Connecticut, research/marketing company. Kirk and Martha live in nearby Fairfield.

I regret to report deaths of John C. Buckley in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Jerry Lee Matheney in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

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