Players Union

NBA players yesterday voted overwhelmingly against decertifying their union, clearing the way for the season to begin on time.In voting tallied in the New York office of the National Labor Relations Board, the players, by a margin of 226-134, decided not to decertify their union, raising hope that the league will begin its regular season as scheduled Nov. 3."The players want to play basketball," said Portland Trail Blazers forward Buck Williams, president of the players union. "We believe we got a fair agreement."

VERO BEACH, Fla. - Two weeks into his annual information tour through spring training camps, Major League Baseball Players Association director Donald Fehr is still playing defense. Baseball owners have used the heatstroke death of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler to justify a new effort to restrict the use of products that contain the weight-loss aid and stimulant ephedrine. The Senate, which held hearings last June to examine claims of widespread steroid use in Major League Baseball, is pondering a new inquiry to take a similar look at the way professional sports deals with ephedrine and other potentially harmful legal supplements.

NEW YORK -- The NHL postponed the start of its season indefinitely yesterday and moved into a standoff with its players union.That situation became apparent when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman rejected the NHL Players Association's latest proposal as not only unacceptable but "a step backwards."Bettman said the board of governors, assembled on a dais in the Princess Ballroom at the New York Sheraton, was unanimous in its decision not to open the season without a collective bargaining agreement.

The Boston Red Sox are in a no-win situation with troubled outfielder Wilfredo Cordero, who stands accused of assaulting his wife, Ana, with a telephone last month and is reeling from recent allegations that he has engaged in a pattern of domestic abuse that dates back nearly a decade.If they allow him to return to the starting lineup, they will be viewed as being soft on the highly charged issue of domestic violence. If they release him, they are further downgrading a team that already is playing well below expectations.

The Ravens voted unanimously Friday to decertify the NFL Players Association, a move that could strengthen the union's negotiations with management over a new collective bargaining agreement. The union is seeking leverage to avert a potential lockout by management for next season. NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and regional director Tom Carter addressed players in the team's auditorium for about an hour after Friday's practice. Smith declined to comment afterward, but Ravens player representative Chris Carr said the players were united in taking the decertification stance.

Tom Bolton recalls his older Boston Red Sox teammates ordering him to attend union meetings during spring training. Leo Gomez recalls Puerto Rican veterans like Juan Beniquez and Jose Cruz educating younger players during winter ball.The indoctrination starts right away, be it at a hotel in Florida or a stadium in Puerto Rico. The average major-leaguer might be more familiar with Reggie Miller than Marvin Miller, but he knows enough to support his union.It's part of the clubhouse culture -- the older players fought for you, now you do your part.

The Major League Baseball Players Association celebrated an anniversary last week. Twenty-five years ago, the labor organization, as we know it, came into being with the appointment of Marvin Miller as its head.Miller gave the association its heart, its soul, its spirit. He carried the players light years from where he found them, from the time when they had little more than gloves, bats, uniforms and indentured servitude.Baseball players now have free agency and salary escalators that are inclusive, not exclusive, when it comes to management's sharing of the wealth.

The women's pro soccer team in South Florida employs several of the U.S. stars from this summer's World Cup, including Abby Wambach and Hope Solo, but the figure who has drawn much of the attention this season has been its owner, Dan Borislow. As magicJack - which is named after Borislow's broadband telephone device - enters the Women's Professional Soccer playoffs this week, a cloud of contentiousness and uncertainty hovers over the club. The team was formerly known as the Washington Freedom before the 49-year-old entrepreneur purchased it from Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks last fall and moved it from Maryland SoccerPlex in Montgomery County to near his Palm Beach home.

The last thing the despicable New York Mets need is another seven-figure free agent who can't play baseball. But they are probably going to get one whether they need her or not.Her? Yeah, her. If I know anything about personal injury juries, the men who administer baseball's Devil's Island will be wise to offer the parents of Amanda Santos, age 2, the little girl with the burned face you might have seen on ESPN Wednesday night, something close to the $2.5 million a year Vince Coleman steals.

NEW YORK -- Negotiators for NBA owners and players continued trying to complete a new labor agreement yesterday, but players and agents made their job potentially more difficult by escalating their dispute with the union's leader.According to agents, a steady stream of players signed their names to notices saying they no longer wanted the union to represent them in collective bargaining. The list, the agents said, included Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Moses Malone and Alonzo Mourning.