Players Union

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 - Pressure mounted on baseball to toughen its steroid-testing regimen, as the White House yesterday urged "strong steps" to combat the drugs and a well-placed senator said it was time for the players union to end its history of "stonewalling." "The president has made it very clear that he believes Major League Baseball needs to act to address the problem," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said at his daily press briefing. "Players who use drugs undermine the efforts of parents and coaches to send the right message to our children.

PHILADELPHIA - In a surprising turn of events, there is a growing feeling that Terrell Owens' trade to the Ravens will be rescinded if a settlement between the NFL and the players union can't be reached, a source close to the arbitration hearing said last night. The lawyers for the NFL Players Association presented an unexpectedly strong case yesterday to support the Pro Bowl receiver's claim that he voided his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in time and should become a free agent.

If the NFL Players Association fails to get his trade rescinded, Pro Bowl receiver Terrell Owens said he would end his protest and play for the Ravens. An NFL spokesman confirmed that Gene Upshaw, executive director of the players union, spoke yesterday with Harold Henderson, the league's executive vice president for labor relations, of his intention to try to void Thursday's deal that sent Owens from the San Francisco 49ers. There has been no resolution on that matter, the spokesman added.

Although Ravens officials believe the addition of Terrell Owens still can develop into a viable marriage, the disgruntled receiver is still campaigning for a divorce. In an interview late Friday night on ESPN, Owens said he is uncertain whether he'll join the Ravens and has stopped negotiating a new deal with the club. The four-time Pro Bowl player has repeatedly voiced his desire to play for the Philadelphia Eagles on his Web site and on national television since he was traded from the San Francisco 49ers to the Ravens for a second-round pick Thursday.

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.

WASHINGTON - The last time his old team, the Raiders, reached the Super Bowl, Gene Upshaw was a newly hired labor chief desperately trying to save the football union. The Raiders will once again appear in the championship tomorrow, but Upshaw is in a better position to enjoy the game. The NFL Players Association he has led for two decades has not only averted disaster but grown into the richest union in sports, largely due to a pioneering subsidiary that he founded. Players Inc. goes beyond the commercial endeavors traditionally pursued by players associations.

NEW YORK - Every time baseball engages in a labor dispute, somebody trots out this line: Major League Baseball has nothing to fear but Fehr himself. That would be Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Donald Fehr, who - if he really cared - could note that the correct pronunciation of his surname is just as close to "fair" as "fear." But he doesn't care. Fehr has been cast as the villain in every baseball labor dispute since he assumed the leadership role in the strongest, richest union in professional sports in 1983.

Major League Baseball may be hell-bent on contraction, but the decision to fold two franchises before the start of the 2002 season faces so many obstacles that the final outcome could be much different than baseball owners intend. The Major League Baseball Players Association, the strongest union in professional sports, has made it clear that the players will fight to preserve the 30-team configuration that ownership now considers unworkable. The owners already face a restraining order and a court hearing aimed at preventing them from folding the struggling Minnesota Twins that was scheduled for today and rescheduled for Tuesday in Minneapolis.

HAVANA -- Orioles owner Peter Angelos and a large contingent of officials representing Major League Baseball and Catholic Relief Services arrived here last night to begin negotiations for a humanitarian home-and-home exhibition series with a team of Cuban amateur players.The delegation, headed by Angelos and Major League Baseball executive vice president Sandy Alderson, also includes Louis Angelos, Orioles left fielder B. J. Surhoff, MLB counsel Bill Schweitzer, players union representative Tony Bernazard, CRS representative Tom Garafalo and several lawyers and advisers to assist in the complex negotiations.