European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 12, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 26 the stars and stripes sports thursday november 12,1292baseball traditions must be saved by John e1senberg a warm july night in 1995. A full House at Baltimore s Camden Yards. A big night at the Yard. Maybe the biggest. Cal Ripken is surpassing Lou Gehrig s Streak tonight. Mike Mussina takes the Mound warms up and throws the first pitch. To Deion Sanders. Of the Atlanta braves. Of the National league. Huh you can t laugh it off not anymore. Not with baseball a owners making noise about changing the Structure of the game As it has existed for a Century. Inter league play. Wild card playoffs. A retooling of divisions and alignments. All horrible ideas. Every one of them. The worst since 8-tracks. Even worse. That they might become real is still a Long shot. But the news is there has been a Subtle change in the tone of the debate. Even mentioning such ideas used to be heresy. Not anymore. These Days new Money owners such As Jerry Reinsdorf will gladly bring it up. Philadelphia Phillies president Bill Giles recently sent a questionnaire to season ticket holders asking which ideas they liked. Amazingly 70 percent were interested in int Erica gue play. But they watched the Phillies All summer so you can excuse their delusion what has occurred a and maybe the owners intended this a is that the ideas have gained legitimacy As Points of discussion. If the owners Are talking about them they re not wacko ideas anymore. Something like that. Anyway its the first step. And understand they May be the kinds of changes you think will never Hap commentary pen but when these owners Start talking about Money you can to hedge any bets. The reason it is happening now is the owners Are worried about declining to ratings translating into declining to Revenue. They re very serious about finding ways to keep from losing that Money. The last contract was for $1.1 billion and the talk is the next one will be much smaller with baseball not faring so Well on to. But if the owners were to throw a new round of playoffs into the mix or the spectacle of inter league play maybe the networks would bite. The networks of course will bite on anything for better ratings. They done to care much about baseball a sacred Book of ritual. As one lbs executive said during the world series a baseball needs to be brought into this  please. Television is the one that needs to be brought up to Date on the business of broadcasting baseball. With weeknight overexposure on esp virtually no a game of the week Quot on lbs and world series Ames decided after Midnight on the East coast baseball a a to arrangement is a disaster. But see its smart business for network execs to criticize baseball. The owners Start thinking their to Money is in trouble and Start talking about More playoffs a which you will notice would give the networks More bang for their Buck. The joke of course is the owners Are crying about any loss of Revenue. According to Andrew Zimbalist a Smith College economics professor who wrote a baseball and billions Quot average team revenues have risen from $5.7 million in 1970 to $58 million in 1991. And As for All this hand wringing about High player salaries Zimbalist Points out that salaries were equal to 31.6 percent of team revenues in 1989, Down from 40.3 percent five years earlier. With those facts As the backdrop it would be a shame if the owners started throwing knee Jerk solutions at problems perceived mostly by network executives. What is special about baseball a postseason is that unlike in every other pro sport the teams have to win a division to get there. Its a Tough concept to grasp but they actually have to earn it. Wild card playoffs would keep More teams in races into september but making the playoffs  mean As much. What is special about the world series is the teams have never played each other. Inter league play would Rob the series of the mystery at the Core of its Appeal. Besides 1 think id ask for a refund if the marlins showed up on my 13-Gamc package. Terrible ideas. All of them. See baseball is different than pro football which can tinker with wild cards and instant replay because it is a newer game and not so bound by tradition. Baseball has barely changed in a Century. That a what is Beautiful about it. Ruth a game is essentially Canseco a. Wild cards and orioles marlins games would come real close to ruining it. Babe Ruth never hit a Home run in a wild card game and thank goodness. Not that the owners care one Whit about tradition if it Means More Money for them. See Vincent Fay sacked to paraphrase a1 Haig they re in charge now. Tom Barl of Sun St. Pete officials confident As they plot Legal strategy it Charles Johnson an former University of Miami Catcher holds his marlins uniform tuesday after signing a contract Worth $600,000 with the no expansion team expansion draft list shrouded in secrecy new York a slowly the names Are starting to trickle out an de Sprague Here and a Kent Mercker there. Still no one is saying for sure exactly who is exempt from baseball a expansion draft and who is not. As in is Panny Tartabul available for the taking by Florida marlins and Colorado Rockies or in t he Quot in be been told Panny was 100 percent protected a his agent Dennis Gilbert said tuesday. �?o1 talked to Yankees Genera manager Gene Michael last weekend and he said they would protect  major league teams turned in their 15-Man protected lists monday and the names will not be made Public. The Rockies and marlins the commissioners office and the major league baseball players association were the Only ones to get the full lists and Many with Access to them were sworn to secrecy. Teams do not want the names to get out for fear that players might learn exactly where they stand and use that knowledge As a bargaining Chip. The new York Yankees were debating up until the end whether to protect Tartabull. He has four years and $19 million left on his contract. Tartabull is from Miami and might interest the marlins if available. If the Yankees lost him they could use some of the salary savings to go after free agent Barry Bonds who s also represented by Gilbert. By Fred Goodall St. Petersburg Fla. A the next Battle Over the san Francisco giants Likely will be fought in the courts where backers of the failed Effort to move the team to Tampa Bay Are confident  be More successful. Ant of frustrated and feeling betrayed by National league owners who blocked the proposed relocation on tuesday local officials Are plotting Legal strategy to fight Back. A i think we have a very Strong Case. We be been wronged in a number of ways Quot said St. Petersburg City attorney Mike Pavis. A we have a valid contract that was intervened Quot he added. A we think there have been conspiratorial activities that Are not covered by the antitrust exemption of baseball a Davis mayor David Fischer and others plan to meet thursday with state attorney general Bob Butterworth to decide their next move. Options include filing a lawsuit to try and Block the Sale of the giants to a group of san Francisco investors who bid less than the $115 million offered by a Tampa Bay group headed by Vincent Naimoli in any Case a lawsuit probably would also include a request for monetary damages that reportedly could total nearly $1 billion if All Legal avenues Are successful. A baseball let us Down Quot Fischer said. A a they be damaged us spiritually and they be damaged us financially. We re not going to take this laying Down. We re going to take this to the end and we re going to get a baseball team Here any Way we  Butterworth has offered the Quot full Legal Force a of the state in any action and the states congressional delegation urged a Senate subcommittee to begin looking into baseball a traditional exemption from antitrust Laws. A the issues that have been raised Here Are of National consequence to the Industry of baseball a said assistant City manager Rick Dodge who spearheaded Tampa Bay s unsuccessful Campaign to land an expansion team in 1991. A this is not the City of St. Petersburg under scrutiny or Tampa Bay or this ownership group a Dodge added a a it san in Dusty that holds itself out to be fair and equitable. And there a very Little of what we be seen this past incident that would indicate  potential defendants in a lawsuit claiming interference with Tampa Bay a offer could be san Francisco mayor Frank Jordan the group of investors who put together the $100 million bid to keep the giants in the Bay area and major league baseball itself. And although a lawsuit is not Likely to improve Tampa Bay a standing in the eyes of major league owners the Man who organized the private Effort to land the giants thinks it May help the area finally get a tenant for the $138 million Florida Sun coast dome. Baseball so history is riddled with concessions to those who sued them Quot Jack Critchfield chairman of Florida Progress corp., said. Earlier tuesday san Francisco investors filed a suit of their own asking a Federal judge to declare that they have not violated the contractual rights of the would be Florida buyers. Davis said he had not seen the san i Francisco suit a so obviously we can to give you a very precise reaction