Strike Date

NEW YORK -- Baseball's latest labor dispute moved into the late innings yesterday, when a contentious, three-hour bargaining session did nothing to dissuade the Major League Baseball Players Association from setting a strike deadline when its executive board meets by conference call this afternoon.Ownership negotiator Richard Ravitch formally -- and forcefully -- rejected a union contract proposal that he said would raise the players' share of revenue as much as $700 million during the next four years.

Look at these guys: handcuffed, soaking wet, standing in the ballpark lockup like six drenched hounds. They're all that remains of Rainout Theater on another night in the underbelly of Camden Yards.As Baltimore Police Lt. Russell Shea Jr., the head of ballpark security, puts it: "Something always comes up."An offensive drunk, people with stolen tickets sitting in the rightful owners' seats, a woman pouring a soda on an ex-lover's head. Nothing too scary, but always something.A rain delay, for example, and six guys doing the Rick Dempsey belly slide on the tarpaulin.

In the seventh inning last night with Toronto leading 5-4, the Orioles' Leo Gomez stepped to the plate as the contestant in the popular baseball game show, "Guess That Pitch."The Blue Jays brought on a ringer of sorts, reliever Mike Timlin, to act as quiz master to Gomez, who had to do some quick thinking.With two outs and the Orioles' Cal Ripken on first base, Timlin's first offering, a fastball, was a ball. Gomez fouled off Timlin's second pitch, also a fastball, and then the real guesswork began.

Chris Sabo has played for two major-league baseball teams, and the owners of both have had pets.One was named Schottzie. The other is named Leo Gomez.Schottzie must not look so bad to Sabo now. At least the pet of Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott never took Sabo's job.Sabo emerged from the office of Orioles manager Johnny Oates before yesterday's 6-4 loss to Toronto armed with the information that his days as the club's regular third baseman are over, never to return as long as Gomez stays healthy.

MILWAUKEE -- Just in case the calendar that runs the world doesn't apply to baseball, just in case it actually is late September and not early August, major-league teams are scouting harder than ever.Most of all, they are scouting themselves.The Orioles are no different. The self-evaluation process going on now could result in a number of changes, barring a late-season rally that includes a spot in the playoffs, if indeed there are playoffs in 1994.Underachieving leads to uncertainty, which leads to speculation.

There is more than a little touch of irony connected to the fact that Mike Mussina's next scheduled start is Friday night, when major-league baseball players are scheduled to go on strike.Part of his preparation while the Orioles are in New York will be to take in tomorrow's negotiating session. The toughest part of his job will be keeping himself, and his teammates, focused on baseball instead of business.That's a term -- staying focused -- you hear a lot in baseball. So much, in fact, you might wonder why it is so difficult.

One day after commissioner Bud Selig fired another cannon over baseball's battered bow, the Detroit Tigers found themselves in the unenviable position of defending their ability to pay players. Selig told the media the day after the All-Star Game that one team would not be able to meet its payroll Monday and another might not finish the season because of mountains of debt. He said one of those teams "will surprise you." Sources told Newsday yesterday the team in danger of not being able to pay was Detroit, but Major League Baseball executive vice president of administration John McHale said, "A solution was reached consistent with the principles outlined by the commissioner."

FOR MOST of the more than 100 years of professional baseball, players were chattel. But over the last three decades, they have racked up an unbroken string of victories. Players now take home more than half the game's revenue, having gone from an average salary of $76,000 in 1977, the first year of free agency, to an average of $2.4 million this season. They control baseball. But where are they leading the game? Yesterday in Chicago, their union backed off plans to set a strike date, at least for now. It's understandable if even the most ardent fans yawn.

Major-league owners delivered a new proposal to the players union yesterday that slightly decreased the annual amount they hope to redistribute through revenue sharing and increased their thresholds for a stiff luxury tax on the baseball's highest payrolls. The new proposal would drop management's proposed annual revenue transfer from $268 million to $263 million and raise the threshold for the luxury tax from $102 million to $107 million for the first three years of the four-year labor agreement and to $111 million for the final year.