Donald Fehr

Major League Baseball has a new chief labor negotiator, but there is no indication that the owners and players will forge a new collective bargaining agreement and end nearly three years of labor unrest.New York City labor relations commissioner Randy Levine is the latest point man for management, and he said yesterday that he is optimistic that he can be the missing link between the two polarized bargaining units."I'm always an optimist," Levine said by telephone conference call yesterday.

LOS ANGELES -- As the baseball players union considers possible strike dates in response to the absence of progress in the labor negotiations and the possibility that owners could unilaterally implement new work rules after the World Series, commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday that six to eight clubs could go out of business if the current economic system is not changed. "I would say six to eight can't exist another year, another year and a half. We're talking about the immediate future," Selig said during a luncheon meeting with editors and reporters of the Times.

LOS ANGELES - As Vladimir Guerrero, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield, Andy Pettitte and several other high-caliber players prepare to test baseball's free-agent market, the players' union is considering filing a grievance through the industry's legal channels that would charge owners with acting in collusion to fix salaries during last winter's slow signing season. Donald Fehr, the union's executive director, would not comment. Sources close to the situation said Wednesday they did not know whether the union would officially act on its conviction that owners violated the bargaining agreement last winter or would simply use the threat of a grievance as warning against collusive activity this winter.

Nearly 300 players who once played in the major leagues and were members of the union served the 27 clubs as replacement players during the strike-stricken exhibition schedule, lists compiled by the union show.The team-by-team lists the union sent to members of its executive board last week totaled 1,554 players who appeared in exhibition games before the players ended their strike April 1.Included on the 27 lists, in bold-face capital letters and underlined, were 291 players, or just under one-fifth, who formerly played in the majors, paid union dues and received union benefits, including money from sales of union-licensed products.

About 7,000 people showed up Thursday evening when Aberdeen threw a parade for its hometown hero, Cal Ripken Jr., who the night before broke New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig's streak of playing in 2,130 consecutive major-league baseball games.The parade featured seven high school bands, 11 floats and more than 1,000 young baseball players."It was just like a big high," said Peter Dacey, Aberdeen's city manager. "We just felt so good about everything."The parade celebrating the record-breaking game by the Orioles shortstop, whose parents still live in Aberdeen, was attended by more people than attended the city's centennial parade three years ago. "This was the biggest-attended parade I've seen in my nine years here," Mr. Dacey said.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles will permit their minor-leaguers to sit out exhibition games and honor the Major League Baseball Players Association's interpretation of strikebreaking, if the minor-leaguers so choose.However, they will be strongly encouraged by the Orioles to play, owner Peter Angelos said last night.Union chief Donald Fehr announced Sunday that anyone who appears in an exhibition game "that is played at either the major-league site or for which admission is charged" will be considered a strikebreaker by the players association.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Momentum continues to build in a wide-ranging effort to restrict the use of weight-loss supplements containing the herbal stimulant that may have contributed to the death of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig released a statement yesterday calling for talks with the Major League Baseball Players Association aimed at placing ephedrine and other potentially dangerous - but legal - supplements on Major League Baseball's list of banned substances.

Montreal's Olympic Stadium will be closed for at least the next five days after a 55-ton chunk of concrete fell from the structure early yesterday, forcing the Montreal Expos to move four home games next week against National League East opponents.The last-place Expos were scheduled to play the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies at Olympic Stadium, but those games will now be played in New York (a doubleheader Tuesday) and Philadelphia (Wednesday and Thursday).No one was injured when the slab fell on to a concrete walkway, police and witnesses said.

When Forbes magazine holds its first CEO Forum this summer, Annapolis will play host to politicians, baseball strike negotiators, corporate bigwigs and even a junk bond trader who spent time in jail.The conference July 12-15 will draw more than 100 corporate leaders at a cost of $2,850 per person, organizers said yesterday.The event is expected to show Maryland, Anne Arundel County and Annapolis as viable spots for long-term business, said Mary Burkholder, the city's economic development director.

Fans of ESPN's Chris Berman know him as the all-sports network's colorful anchorman and as the preening play-by- play announcer on the annual "Bud Bowl" commercials. Now, Berman has joined the ranks of book authors with the publication of "Chris Names," a compilation of his funny and outrageous sports nicknames. A portion of the proceeds from the book benefit the "V Foundation for Cancer Research," established in memory of Berman's late colleague Jim Valvano. Berman spoke recently with Sun staff writer Mark Hyman.