Antitrust Exemption

WASHINGTON - Last March, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain warned baseball to get serious about drug testing. "Your failure to address these issues straight on will motivate this committee to search for legislative remedies," the Republican senator from Arizona told leaders of the sport and its players union. Nine months later - with baseball still not having acted - McCain issued a second, sterner warning last weekend. This time, according to sports lawyers, marketers and Capitol Hill staff, the senator's coaxing has a better chance of achieving the desired results.

WASHINGTON -- If Rep. Tom McMillen, D-Md., has his way, the reform of college athletics will start with the NCAA.McMillen yesterday unveiled the "Collegiate Athletic Reform Act" designed to restore the balance between athletics and academics at colleges and universities across the country. The bill takes aim at what McMillen considers the core of the problem -- the escalating role of big-time money in the big-time college sports, football and men's basketball.The new legislation would restore to the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption for football and basketball, a privilege that was taken away by the Supreme Court in 1984, for a period of five years, giving the NCAA the power to negotiate all television contracts.

Ignore all those rumors about Baltimore's bid for the Cleveland Browns getting derailed.That was the message yesterday from Browns owner Art Modell, who maintained that he has been promised an owners' vote this week on the proposed move of his team to Baltimore despite reports from Cleveland that the vote could be delayed because of the Seattle Seahawks' sudden move to Los Angeles.The Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted a league source Sunday as saying the timing of the Seahawks' move could help Cleveland's bid to keep the Browns.

For sheer heartbreak, nothing can match the trauma of a team packing up and leaving in the middle of the night. It's different for baseball fans in Tampa-St. Petersburg. The moving vans keep approaching -- and always get turned around.Which is the greater anguish, losing a team or never getting one? Civic leaders in Baltimore and Tampa-St. Pete could stage a lively debate on that topic. The prize would be anything the winner desired -- so long as it wasn't an expansion team.Die-hard Colts fans might disagree, but Tampa-St.

Federal mediators may not be able to change the course of the deadlocked baseball negotiations, but they already have succeeded in changing the chemistry of them.John Calhoun Wells, the national director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, announced yesterday that negotiations will resume next week and that individual owners will be at the bargaining table.That represents a shift in the bargaining strategy of the owners -- who have conducted all negotiations of their Player Relations Committee through Richard Ravitch.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Lenny Dykstra had his say yesterday. He expressed his doubts and asked his questions and then generally submitted to the will of the 260 or so fellow strikers who showed up for a regional meeting of the Major League Baseball Players Association.Lest anyone forget, Dykstra is the one big-name player to question the solidarity of the union. He is the one who said on ESPN's "Up Close" last week that he wanted to convene a meeting of the 20 highest-paid players in baseball to review the performance of the union leadership.

Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell said last night that he still plans to move his team to Baltimore and has had no discussions with NFL officials about changing the team's nickname or colors."

Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, is the latest lawmaker to try to prevent sports teams from jilting cities and demanding tax dollars for stadiums.A bill he introduced would shield the National Football League from antitrust lawsuits when it blocks a team move -- protection Major League Baseball already has. While the NFL has sought this in the past, the rest of the bill is something it and baseball oppose: requirements that the leagues pay for their stadiums.It would require the two leagues to put into a trust fund 10 percent of their network TV revenues each year.

WASHINGTON -- If baseball owners care about keeping thei treasured exemption from federal antitrust laws, the best way to show it would be to appoint a strong and independent commissioner to replace Fay Vincent, the strong and independent commissioner they recently forced from office.That was the stern warning issued to owners during hearings of the Senate Antitrust subcommittee yesterday.Hearing testimony from an owner, a players union official, the mayor of San Francisco and an ex-commissioner, among others, the senators ticked off a litany of recent controversies and expressed doubt whether the sport continues to merit its special status with regard to antitrust laws.