Replacement Players

The National Basketball Association needs to make these contract talks work or do what the National Football League did years ago and hire and play temporary replacement players ("Will there be an NBA season of any kind?" Nov. 18). Maybe then these overpriced players and owners will come to agreeable terms and fully save the NBA season. Barry Apple, Woodlawn

The National Basketball Association needs to make these contract talks work or do what the National Football League did years ago and hire and play temporary replacement players ("Will there be an NBA season of any kind?" Nov. 18). Maybe then these overpriced players and owners will come to agreeable terms and fully save the NBA season. Barry Apple, Woodlawn

Judge Sotomayor for President!Replacement players are returning to the woodwork whence they came, now in baseball, soon in the Republican presidential primaries.

If the NHL decides to open the 2005-06 season with replacement players, two of its Canadian teams most likely wouldn't be able to play any home games. Provincial labor laws in Quebec and British Columbia prohibit companies from hiring replacements to fill in for striking or locked-out workers. That means the NHL's most storied franchise, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Vancouver Canucks at the very least could not play games at their home arenas. Labor laws in Ontario and Alberta, the homes to the four other Canadian franchises, are similar to those in the United States.

Besides the prospect of playing in a major-league ballpark or creating space for themselves in the Baseball Encyclopedia, the primary draw for the replacement players was money. Lots of quick cash.Now they may never get the big payoff, because owners may postpone or even cancel the replacement games. Going ahead with replacements could cost some teams at least $960,000.Each replacement player receives a $5,000 signing bonus, payable April 16. Many teams have already signed all or most of their replacement players, so that money is gone.

Even if the Orioles' minor-league exhibition schedule is wiped out, the regular-season schedules should remain intact. The Orioles' refusal to play against replacement players likely won't extend to the minor leagues.Other teams have indicated that they will assign some players under replacement contracts to their minor-league affiliates. Orioles owner Peter Angelos has refused to allow the organization's minor-leaguers to play against replacement players in spring training."We haven't reached any final decision regarding [the regular season]

Peter Angelos does not have to fight his legal battles alone. State and city legislators are helping him.They discussed and voted on several bills yesterday that would back up Angelos' stand against replacement players.The Maryland Senate passed two bills that would prevent games at Camden Yards this season unless 75 percent of the players were on major-league rosters last season and prohibit advertising at games that use replacement players. They passed 38-9 and 39-16, respectively.The bills were sponsored by Sen. John Pica, a Baltimore Democrat and an attorney in Angelos' law firm, at the request of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.

Now that the labor talks have broken down, it appears more and more likely that replacement players will be in uniform on Opening Day.So what happens with the Orioles, who have declined to field a replacement team?The issue could come up at the owners meetings that begin today in Palm Beach, Fla., although Phyllis Merhige, vice president of media affairs for the American League, said yesterday there are no plans to discuss the fate of the Orioles and owner Peter Angelos."What we've said is we are exploring our options," said Merhige.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- American League president Gene Budig has asked the Orioles to clarify their stance on the use of replacement players, a request that would seem to presage any decision regarding the fate of the team's regular-season schedule.Budig, according to a baseball executive, sent the Orioles a letter Monday afternoon asking the team to state whether it will use replacement players. The letter reads that "for the purpose" of advising other teams scheduled to play in Baltimore next week -- the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers -- the Orioles are asked to inform Budig of their stance promptly.

Orioles owner Peter Angelos has been saying for months that Orioles fans are dead set against the use of replacement players. Yesterday, he released the results of an independent poll that backed up his opinion.The poll of Orioles season-ticket holders, conducted recently by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, showed that an overwhelming majority of the club's fans disapprove of Major League Baseball's plan to use replacement players if the 5 1/2 -month players strike does not end by Opening Day."

ATHENS - The Greeks went nuts, waving their blue-and-white flags, chanting, "Hellas! Hellas!" and jumping up and down in unison. But to the veteran NBA players on the U.S. roster, last night's was just another hostile crowd. "It's like playing Boston in the playoffs. It's like playing New York in the playoffs," Richard Jefferson said. "It's something we've been through a million times." Two days after an embarrassing loss to Puerto Rico, the U.S. men handled Greece's overmatched national team last night, beating the plucky Greeks, 77-71, before a packed house at the Helliniko Indoor Arena.

Baseball found a way to get Cal Ripken off the field in 1994. It stopped playing. The season lasted until Aug. 12, when players went on strike. Team owners canceled the remaining 249 games of the regular season, and there was no World Series for the first time since 1904. Ripken had enough time to hit .315, and his 75 RBIs were second on the team to Rafael Palmeiro's 76. It was Ripken's finest season since being named Most Valuable Player in 1991. It also was his shortest, lasting 112 games and jeopardizing The Streak.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Detroit Tigers are grooming minor-league outfielder Ira Smith to be a coach or manager. Smith, 30, a Maryland alum from Chestertown, is an ex-replacement player whose promotion to the Padres was voted down, 24-1, when Randy Smith was San Diego's GM; he's now GM of the Tigers.Pub Date: 7/27/97

If not for the strike, Matt Williams or Frank Thomas might hold major-league baseball's single-season home run record and Tony Gwynn might be the most recent .400 hitter.The 71Z2-month labor dispute prematurely ended their challenges to those milestones and refocused attention on another, Cal Ripken's pursuit of Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games record.The owners' threatened use of replacement players and the union's refusal to return to work jeopardized Ripken's streak at 2,009 consecutive games, 122 shy of breaking Gehrig's mark.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Hours after the Orioles called up left-hander Jimmy Hurst from Triple-A Rochester yesterday, to replace the disabled Arthur Rhodes, they released Hurst when they found out he had been a replacement player during the spring."

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Union head Richie Phillips said locked-out major league umpires will return immediately if owners agree to continue talks until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached, USA Today reported today."

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles' spring training exhibition schedule could be wiped out because of the organization's stance against replacement players, leaving the club's minor-leaguers with a month of intrasquad games.At least five of the 12 teams scheduled to play Baltimore in spring games have sent letters to the Orioles -- the language virtually identical in each -- asking for clarification on the club's position on the use of replacement players during the baseball strike. Similar letters from the other seven teams scheduled are expected to arrive tomorrow.

Fifty-one percent of baseball fans say they would attend the same number of games next season even if replacement players are used, according to a national poll by the Associated Press.And 63 percent say they would watch just as many games on television next year if replacements take the field. The percentage of Americans identifying themselves as baseball fans dropped to 26 percent from 33 percent in July.As for who to blame for the strike, 67 percent of fans fault both sides. Another 21 percent blame players and 8 percent blame owners.

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.

Where the Major League Umpires Association is making a serious mistake comes with its failure to surround ballparks with picket lines. Maybe they already know it would be a waste of time.The umpires say they may send pickets to the front but it will only be a tentative presence. The most compelling reason why the umpires aren't going to demonstrate is they realize their striking protest would be a failure . . . ignored by the players, press and public, which would be unfortunate.Richie Phillips, who heads the umpires' organization, says if pickets are used, they will be "informational in nature and not designed to keep anyone out of the ballpark."