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."

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday turned back a scaled-down version of the proposed bill to withdraw Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption, apparently increasing the likelihood of a late-season players strike.The committee voted 10-7 against sending the bill to the Senate floor, even after its sponsor -- Ohio Democrat Howard Metzenbaum -- reduced the scope of the measure drastically in an attempt to bring it to a full vote.The amended version would have removed antitrust protection only as it related to baseball's troubled labor situation, giving the players union the ability to sue the owners in federal court rather than interrupt the season with a strike.

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.

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.

WASHINGTON -- To increase competition in the market for medical care, White House officials are recommending that the health insurance industry be stripped of its long-standing immunity from federal antitrust law.The proposal reflects the concern of administration officials and consumer advocates that a handful of big insurance companies may soon dominate the industry, especially if Congress approves the plan President Clinton is developing to overhaul U.S....

PHOENIX -- Major league baseball owners gave "preliminary approval" yesterday to three-division realignment within the National and American leagues, interleague play and expansion of the playoffs from four to eight teams, beginning with the 1995 season.Milwaukee Brewer owner Bud Selig, the commissioner pro-tem, said the "sentiment was overwhelming in favor" at a meeting of all 28 clubs of adding four teams and an extra week to the postseason. Asked if there was much opposition, Mr. Selig replied: "There were no cases of cardiac arrest."

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.