WASHINGTON -- Baseball commissioner Bud Selig will not testify at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the sport's antitrust exemption and instead will send his chief lawyer.

Bob DuPuy, an executive vice president in the commissioner's office and baseball's chief legal officer, and union head Donald Fehr are among witnesses scheduled to appear at the hearing, a spokesman for committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said Monday.

Also scheduled to testify are Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, Minnesota Deputy Attorney General Lori Swanson, and Stan Brand, a lobbyist for the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the governing body of the minor leagues.

Sen. Paul D. Wellstone, D-Minn., and Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., proposed legislation Nov. 14 to strip baseball of its antitrust exemption as it applies to franchise moves and folding. Wellstone is to testify along with Mark Dayton, D-Minn., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Wellstone and Conyers proposed their bill after baseball owners voted Nov. 6 to eliminate two teams. Owners tried to fold the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos, but they were blocked by a Minnesota court injunction that forced the Twins to honor their lease at the Metrodome in 2002, and Selig last week admitted no teams would be folded before this season.

Selig testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 6, claiming owners had a $232 million operating loss last year. When pressed by committee members, he evaded questions about specifics of team's expenses.

Leahy hopes the hearing will focus on the antitrust exemption, which has been partially eroded. The exemption, created by a 1922 Supreme Court decision and affirmed by the court in 1953 and 1972, was modified in 1998 by the Curt Flood Act, which said antitrust laws applied to labor relations for major league players.

A federal judge in Philadelphia ruled in 1993 that the exemption couldn't be used by baseball to defend a lawsuit by Mike Piazza's father. In a 1994 decision involving Butterworth, the Florida Supreme Court struck down the exemption as it pertained to franchise relocation.

The Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the antitrust exemption in 1999, blocking an investigation by its attorney general.