League Baseball Players

Text of the joint statement from the American and Cuban baseball delegations:"A delegation of representatives of the Baltimore Orioles, Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association arrived at Jose Marti Airport in Havana on the night of Jan. 15, 1999. Among others in the delegation were Peter Angelos, chairman and owner of the Baltimore Orioles; Sandy Alderson, executive vice president, baseball operations, Major League Baseball; Tony Bernazard, director of international relations of the Major League Baseball Players Association; and B. J. Surhoff, a player with the Baltimore Orioles.

Earlier this week, the Major League Baseball Players Association said it would look into whether there is collusion involved in Barry Bonds not being signed by a big league team so far this year. He has been in search of a new team since being released by San Francisco. Understand that union head Don Fehr isn't exactly breathing fire on this one. In fact, he's speaking kind of gingerly, saying that he's not making any accusations.

NEW YORK-- Major-league owners didn't make a contract proposal to the players union in a meeting yesterday that did nothing to lessen the possibility of a late-season strike.This was the third meeting since March between the two sides, who have yet to do more than exchange preliminary financial information.The sides scheduled another meeting Monday in Los Angeles, but it is expected to be next month, at the earliest, before owners make their formal proposal for a new salary compensation system that will include a salary cap to trigger revenue sharing.

News item: Former Sen. George J. Mitchell sent a letter to the Major League Baseball Players Association last month requesting that 45 more players cooperate with his steroid probe. My take: Didn't he announce a couple of months ago that he was close to wrapping this thing up? Maybe I'm just a cynic, but the only thing we don't really know already is what happens when you multiply 45 more players by six lawyers by $350 per hour. Related news item: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher-turned-outfielder Rick Ankiel, the feel-good story of the baseball season, has joined the list of high-profile athletes implicated in the Albany hGH probe.

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.

Earlier this week, the Major League Baseball Players Association said it would look into whether there is collusion involved in Barry Bonds not being signed by a big league team so far this year. He has been in search of a new team since being released by San Francisco. Understand that union head Don Fehr isn't exactly breathing fire on this one. In fact, he's speaking kind of gingerly, saying that he's not making any accusations.

The decision by Orioles manager Davey Johnson to designate fine money to a charitable foundation employing his wife has sparked controversy, but it apparently did not violate league rules.Internal disciplinary policies are set by the individual clubs, so Johnson was not required to check with league officials before levying the disputed $10,500 fine on second baseman Roberto Alomar for missing an exhibition game and a club function. Nor is Johnson specifically precluded from steering the money to a favorite charity.

Pitcher Dave McNally, one of the cornerstones of the greatest starting rotation in Orioles history and a key figure in baseball's economic revolution of the 1970s, died of cancer Sunday night in his hometown of Billings, Mont. He was 60. Longtime Orioles fans might remember Mr. McNally best for his world title-clinching 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1966 and a string of four straight 20-win seasons from 1968 to 1971. He and Orioles pitchers Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar and Pat Dobson in 1971 became the first four 20-game winners on the same team since 1920.

PHOENIX - Major league baseball players, facing pressure from Congress, fans and the commissioner, authorized union leaders yesterday to seek an agreement for tougher rules against steroids, possibly in time for the 2005 spring training. Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said the union's executive board "authorized us to attempt to conclude an agreement" with the commissioner's office, adding, "I don't think it will take an extended period of time."

When volatile Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker delivered a verbal assault on New Yorkers, "foreigners" and homosexuals in the pages of Sports Illustrated magazine recently, a lot of people thought he should have had his head examined. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig thinks so, too. Major League Baseball announced yesterday that Selig has ordered the young pitcher to undergo a psychological evaluation before the Commissioner's Office determines whether he will be subject to disciplinary action for his politically incorrect comments.

The numbers - which will likely be recited often this week as baseball celebrates the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier - are troubling. Though 40.5 percent of major league baseball players on rosters last season were players of color, only 8.4 percent were African-Americans. That percentage has been steadily declining since 1975, when 28 percent of all major leaguers were African-American. But when you examine the reasons behind those numbers, it's even more troubling, according to those involved in the game at the grass-roots level in Baltimore.

The sign at Legends Field said everything you need to know about the New York Yankees, a team so used to having its way in the economically imbalanced world of Major League Baseball that owner George Steinbrenner (or one of his lackeys) was simply not capable of hiding the franchise's Big Apple-sized sense of entitlement. Of course, I'm talking about the sign that was visible Saturday on the main concourse of the Yankees' fancy spring training site in Tampa, Fla., which apologized to fans for the absence of several of the club's biggest stars during the World Baseball Classic.

DETROIT - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig would love to use the sweeping powers of his office to rid the sport of performance-enhancing drugs ... if only his powers were as sweeping as some people would like to believe. Selig has asked the Major League Baseball Players Association to join him in adopting a much tougher steroid-testing program than the one that currently appears to be working just fine, because the fact that it seems to be working is only half the battle. "I believe this is an integrity issue," Selig said yesterday.

DETROIT - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig would love to use the sweeping powers of his office to rid the sport of performance- enhancing drugs if only his powers were as sweeping as some people would like to believe. Selig has asked the Major League Baseball Players Association to join him in adopting a much tougher steroid-testing program than the one that currently appears to be working just fine, because the fact that it seems to be working is only half the battle. "I believe this is an integ rity issue."

THE BASEBALL offseason went by so fast, I'm starting to suspect it was on steroids, too. The newly relocated Washington Nationals are scheduled to report to their spring training base in Viera, Fla., tomorrow and open pitcher and catcher workouts Thursday. The Orioles aren't in quite the same hurry. They report Saturday and hold their first official workout a week from today, with all the position players due in camp late next week. But it's still difficult to believe they're already breaking out the bats and balls again.

MAJOR LEAGUE Baseball players will report to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona in just five weeks, and clubhouse managers across the show are apt to be busy finding smaller jerseys for not a few pros. Even with baseball's toothless stab at drug testing last season, some ball players showed up with noticeably deflated physiques, the apparent result of having forsaken the juice of steroids. This season, with baseball now having been shamed into the tougher testing protocol announced last week, look for the games to be played on a much more human scale.

WASHINGTON - The senator trying to prod baseball into tougher drug testing said yesterday that the newly announced anti-steroid program represents progress but that the sport should also screen for stimulants. The new program - which includes year-round testing for steroid use and a 10-day suspension for a first violation - represents "dramatic and significant progress," said Arizona Republican John McCain, who had threatened to introduce legislation compelling reforms if baseball didn't act voluntarily.

WASHINGTON - The senator trying to prod baseball into tougher drug testing said yesterday that the newly announced anti-steroid program represents progress but that the sport should also screen for stimulants. The new program - which includes year-round testing for steroid use and a 10-day suspension for a first violation - represents "dramatic and significant progress," said Arizona Republican John McCain, who had threatened to introduce legislation compelling reforms if baseball didn't act voluntarily.

PHOENIX - Major league baseball players, facing pressure from Congress, fans and the commissioner, authorized union leaders yesterday to seek an agreement for tougher rules against steroids, possibly in time for the 2005 spring training. Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said the union's executive board "authorized us to attempt to conclude an agreement" with the commissioner's office, adding, "I don't think it will take an extended period of time."