Baseball Players Association

The image of Lou Gehrig, unbowed by an incurable disease, remains fixed in the national consciousness nearly 60 years after he proclaimed himself "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth." He was the archetypal all-American hero at a time when a troubled nation needed every ounce of inspiration to get through the Great Depression and prepare for another World War.The historical implications were not nearly as profound when the Orioles' Cal Ripken chased down the Iron Horse and emerged as one of his generation's greatest sports heroes.

Cardinals: St. Louis has been successful on 15 straight stolen base attempts.Padres: San Diego hasn't won a season series against the Astros since 1992, when it had an 11-7 edge. Tony Gwynn, in an 11-for-60 slide, didn't start for the second time in five games.Phillies: Darren Daulton received the Major League Baseball Players Association 1997 NL Comeback Player award before the game.Pub Date: 7/27/98

Orioles owner Peter Angelos is ready to take up the cause again. He tried hard during baseball's last labor dispute to convince fellow owners to focus their revenue-sharing program on new stadium construction, and still feels that it would be a better way to use the millions that are being transferred from large-market to small-market clubs.Angelos talked informally to some other owners about the idea during the last quarterly ownership meeting and could bring it up again when Major League Baseball begins to devise its strategy for the next collective bargaining talks with the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Jerome F. "Jake" Bounds, a Baltimore native who quit high school in 1928 to take a job as a messenger for Union Trust Co. and retired 46 years later as an assistant vice president, died of heart failure early Wednesday at Howard County General Hospital.The Ellicott City resident was 86.Mr. Bounds left Mount St. Joseph High School at 17 to earn money and help his family during the Depression. He continued working for Union Trust without a salary when it was unable to pay employees during the Depression.

Former Orioles shortstop Mark Belanger was an early arrival at Camden Yards yesterday, listening in as his son stood near home plate rehearsing the national anthem. Robert Belanger, 28, of Lutherville, sang the anthem before last night's game, as he had done here four years earlier."He's the singer in the family," said the elder Belanger, a Major League Baseball Players Association official. "He didn't get it from me."Belanger enjoys whatever success is achieved by Davey Johnson, his former Orioles roommate.

Baseball owners left their quarterly meeting in Atlanta without settling on a comprehensive realignment plan, which raised the frightening specter of another off-season battle with the Major League Baseball Players Association.The union has not been a big player in the realignment debate, but that is going to change soon. The owners want to have a new format in place by Oct. 15 (which really means Nov. 28), but they haven't cleared the first hurdle in an obstacle course that could soon be pockmarked with union objections.

CLEVELAND -- Major League Baseball's schedule/format committee is scheduled to meet here today for further discussion on the proposed realignment of the two leagues, but no final decision is expected on the format for next season.The owners have set a Sept. 30 deadline for completing a realignment plan and solving the scheduling problems that have hurt the first year of their two-year experiment with interleague play.Interim commissioner Bud Selig said recently that the move to an imbalanced schedule is almost inevitable, but the owners must move the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays into the American League East to facilitate a regionalized schedule that is weighted heavily toward divisional competition.

Baseball's ruling Executive Council voted last week to expel New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner from that governing body and relieve him of all his committee assignments.It was a predictable response to Steinbrenner's recent decision to file a lawsuit against Major League Baseball, which recently ordered him to clear future marketing deals -- like his $95 million contract with Adidas -- with his fellow owners.And it was just what baseball needs right now, another internecine war that is sure to divide baseball ownership, heighten the cynicism of the fans and increase the power of the players union.

Major League Baseball's disciplinary summit failed to produce any change in the way the sport handles unruly players, but representatives of the Major League Baseball Players Association and the umpires union agreed to form a study group to examine baseball's disciplinary system.The meeting, held yesterday in West Palm Beach, Fla., was part of an agreement reached in federal court last October to prevent a postseason boycott by umpires, who were outraged that Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar was allowed to postpone the five-game suspension he received for spitting on umpire John Hirschbeck.

Baltimore attorney Ron Shapiro wears a lot of hats. He's the superagent who represents Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray. He is a major mover and shaker in city politics, acting as treasurer of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's campaign committee.And, over the past four months, he has been an unofficial labor mediator, smoothing the way for baseball's long-awaited labor contract, approved by owners Tuesday.Shapiro, whose conciliatory manner has allowed him to maintain close ties with both the Major League Baseball Players Association and interim commissioner Bud Selig, is getting some of the credit for rescuing the deal that was roundly rejected by the owners at a Nov. 6 ratification meeting.