Antitrust Exemption

Blame it on Baltimore.The Baltimore Terrapins, the city's Federal League franchise, filed a lawsuit in 1917 that led to Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption.The team's owners, Ned Hanlon, Harry Goldman and Carroll W. Rasin, wanted a major-league franchise as part of the Federal League settlement with the major leagues after the 1915 season. Two other Federal League owners had purchased major-league teams. So the Terrapins brass made a personal appeal, offering $250,000 for a franchise.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) used to own part of a major-league baseball franchise. He has two teams in his state. Yet for the past two years, Metzenbaum has been a staunch opponent of major-league baseball's antitrust exemption."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Howard Metzenbaum was preaching to the choir. Whenever he took a verbal shot at Major League Baseball, applause erupted among the crowd of 150-or-so, expansion-hungry Floridians who showed up for yesterday's hearing on baseball's antitrust exemption.There was no pretense of objectivity. Metzenbaum, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights, is working to remove the antitrust protection afforded baseball by the Supreme Court in 1922.

WASHINGTON -- Congress continued its efforts yesterday to restrict the baseball owners' antitrust exemption when the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would apply antitrust laws to any effort to unilaterally impose work rules, such as the owners' proposed salary cap.The chances of the bill's moving through both houses before Congress' expected adjournment Oct. 7 still are doubtful.Still, Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., the bill's co-sponsor, remains hopeful the bill could go before the full House during the current session.

Baseball owners are willing to go a long way to claim a victory in the game's bitter labor dispute -- even to another sport.The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the National Basketball Association yesterday, dismissing a union claim that the NBA's salary cap violates federal antitrust laws. The court said that antitrust laws do not apply in cases where a collective bargaining relationship exists, and baseball owners quickly seized on the decision as proof that Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption is not a significant factor in the sport's long-running labor war."

SARASOTA, Fla. -- This week in baseball. Hopefully, it will be better than last.The first full week of spring training turned into a sorry showcase of the game's troubled state, from the nightclub scuffle that landed two Toronto Blue Jays players in jail to the announcement that a bunch of opportunistic U.S. senators would convene antitrust hearings in Tampa in mid-March.Things were bad enough when all we had to worry about was the coming labor confrontation, the new definition of "commissioner," and whether Jerry Reinsdorf's lips actually move whenever Bud Selig speaks.

Marvin Miller, the former head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, changed baseball's labor situation forever with arbitration and free agency.Today Miller envisions a whole new ballgame. If the strike cancels the World Series and the owners declare a labor impasse and implement a salary cap, Miller said the striking players could be working for a rival league next season."If there are some real entrepreneurs out there, you might see some competition for the first time," Miller said.

The knee-jerk response: The Major League Baseball Players Association lost its last hope of getting the labor portion of baseball's antitrust exemption removed when the Republicans took control of Congress. After all, Republicans always side with management.Reality: The players' desire to retain certain freedoms stand closer to Republican principles than do the desires of owners, who want to impose a socialistic salary cap aimed at controlling wages and curbing competitive imbalance.It's not as if Republicans have a difficult time relating to ballplayers, who reached an average salary of $1.2 million in 1994.

Beware the extended winning streak. It cannot be trusted. The Minnesota Twins are making a big play in the wild, wild American League West, but they will make a U-turn any day now. Bet the rent on it.The Texas Rangers already have had their fun, winning 14 straight to enjoy a fleeting few hours in first place before heading back in the other direction. The Seattle Mariners have been streaking every which way, but to only mild success.Present these examples to any weathered baseball man and he'll tell you that -- with few exceptions -- every team will have one big run in the course of the season.

There is no lack of competition in the insurance industry and no need to fiddle with the insurance industry's exemption from Maryland's antitrust law, according to a draft report of the Governor's Commission on Insurance, which was expected to be made final late last week.In fact, repealing the exemption would only hurt smaller insurers and possibly even drive some out of business, the commission's antitrust subcommittee said in the report, which was obtained by The Sun.Gov. William Donald Schaefer appointed the commission in May to draft recommendations on a variety of insurance issues, including antitrust, solvency, insurance fraud and no-fault insurance.