Antitrust Exemption

Back to work, boys. File your complaints, prepare your lawsuits, then tell the owners, "See you in spring training."The strategy would be simple.End the strike, not the fight.It's the best option for the union, the one that would put its members in position to receive a paycheck, rather than force them to decide whether to cross a picket line.It's also the option that serves the best interests of the game, not that either side would dare entertain such a ridiculous concept.Back to work, boys -- but not right away.

Major League Baseball may be hell-bent on contraction, but the decision to fold two franchises before the start of the 2002 season faces so many obstacles that the final outcome could be much different than baseball owners intend. The Major League Baseball Players Association, the strongest union in professional sports, has made it clear that the players will fight to preserve the 30-team configuration that ownership now considers unworkable. The owners already face a restraining order and a court hearing aimed at preventing them from folding the struggling Minnesota Twins that was scheduled for today and rescheduled for Tuesday in Minneapolis.

"Off with his head!" cries the president of the Baltimore City Council. "Let a thousand consumer advocates bloom!" shouts the state senator from Northeast Baltimore.It is great political theater. But the sound and fury emanating from Council President Mary Pat Clarke and Sen. John A. Pica Jr. signify nothing more than pent-up frustration over the high cost of auto insurance in Baltimore City.They are furious with state Insurance Commissioner John Donaho for not ending "territorial rating," which lets insurers base premiums on the number of accidents in a given area.

Professional sports are often described as cases of grow men playing little boys' games, but the fact is, adults can become just as childlike on the spectator side of the aisle.Grown men and women will go to extreme lengths to secure tickets for a sporting event -- waiting in line for hours; strategically mailing postcards all around town in the hopes of being able to purchase a $60 All-Star Game ticket; paying hundreds of dollars simply for the right to purchase a season ticket for hundreds more, as is being done in Charlotte, N.C. for a football franchise.

Finally, four weeks late, major league baseball returns to Camden Yards. That's joyous news for fans all over this region. The Orioles have emerged from baseball's shabby labor dispute in relatively good shape, off the field as well as on. Not so, everywhere else in the two leagues. The strike/lockout/civil war since last August has damaged the national pastime. What remains unclear as the season starts is how badly.Two consequences of the strike will be evident this afternoon on the field.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tom McMillen, D-Md., today was to introduce legislation in the House calling for far-reaching reforms in college sports, including a requirement that the NCAA negotiate all football and basketball broadcast contracts.McMillen proposes giving university presidents unprecedented power over intercollegiate sports by creating a Board of Presidents to govern the NCAA. The group, containing no more than 33 elected members, would be able to unilaterally enact changes and reforms without taking the proposals to the NCAA convention.

TUESDAY, 1 p.m.Senate Judicial Proceedings, Senate Room 300.SB 51 Immunity From Civil Liability -- SLAPP Suits; SB 63 Maryland Private Land Rights Protection Act.WEDNESDAY, 11 a.m.House Economic Matters, Room 150, Lowe HOBBriefing: Maryland State Retirement and Pension Systems -- Overview of Current Issues and Investments.WEDNESDAY, 1 p.m.Senate Finance, Senate Presidential WingSB 42 Insurance -- Liability of Insurer for Punitive Damages; SB 44 Insurance -- Antitrust Exemption and Rate Making; SB 148 Insurance -- Examination of Insurance Holding Corporations; SB 149 Insurance -- Premium Finance Companies -- Penalties; SB 165 Insurance -- Domestic Insurer of Insurance Holding Corporation -- Filing Requirements; SB 166 Insurance -- Underwriting -- Prohibition; SB 167 Insurance -- Liability Insurance Data Reporting; SB 168 Insurance -- Premium Finance Companies -- Examinations.

Former Labor Secretary William Usery has taken over the scheduling of the baseball labor negotiations and apparently will move the talks to Washington.Sources on both sides of the labor dispute indicated that the next bargaining session -- originally scheduled for today in New York -- will take place in Washington tomorrow, but it is not known whether all the negotiations will be held in the nation's capital.That would mesh with Usery's style of mediation. He has a reputation for keeping the bargaining units at the table for long hours, and may believe that moving both sides out of New York will raise the discomfort level to a point where they will be more receptive to a compromise.

Despite the NFL's setback in court Tuesday, commissioner Paul Tagliabue is moving ahead with the expansion process.Yesterday Tagliabue named the final three members of the expansion committee that he will chair, and he announced that the committee will hold its first meeting in July.The three new members are Hugh Culverhouse of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rankin Smith of the Atlanta Falcons and Alex Spanos of the San Diego Chargers.Smith and Spanos have rarely played a key role in league issues, but Tagliabue has said he wants to get more owners involved in league affairs.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- April 3. That's Opening Day, the day owners again start losing big money.April 17. That's payday, the day the players again start losing big money.Feb. 21. That's today, the day the baseball talks resume in Milwaukee.Get the message?It's still too soon.Neither side is hurting enough to force a settlement. And unless the owners capitulate, former union director Marvin Miller expects the strike to continue, perhaps into April."Their aim is to break the union," Miller said from New York.