Baseball Owners Request a Moratorium on Talks

Baseball’s owners cited a “serious financial situation” and asked for a moratorium in labor talks Wednesday. The surprise move could enable the players’ union to get its first look at the clubs’ financial ledgers. Also, it probably will delay any settlement on a collective bargaining agreement until after opening day, April 8.

After a meeting of owners Tuesday in New York, baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth empowered the owners’ Player Relations Committee to furnish a legal accounting from all teams if it becomes necessary in negotiations.

Owners have refused in the past to open their books to players. Labor law, however, requires management to show proof of financial problems if it claims poverty. Nell Wooden, wife of former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, was in serious condition Wednesday at St. Vincent Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

“She’s slowly slipping, and there’s nothing that can be done,” John Wooden had said Tuesday.

Mrs. Wooden, 73, has for more than two years suffered from emphysema, has undergone hip surgery, suffered two heart attacks, endured a 93-day coma and developed diabetes and cancer of the pancreas.

Nursing supervisor Mary Carroll of St. Vincent Medical Center said Mrs. Wooden was in serious condition.

The couple were married Aug. 8, 1932, after Wooden’s graduation from Purdue.

Boston University beat the University of Lowell, 5-3, at Boston in a hockey game without spectators in the wake of a measles epidemic.

“It was weird when we came out for warmups,” said Boston’s Chuck Sullivan of the empty, noiseless Brown Arena. “However after two shifts, we were able to get into the game. It was more like a scrimmage than a game.”

Boston University officials barred fans from all sporting events before spring vacation begins Friday in an effort to control the measles outbreak that has stricken 53 students in the past week.

“When you hit somebody, there were no fans cheering,” said Sullivan, who scored twice. “And there was no cheering after my goals. I wouldn’t want this as a steady diet.”

Southern Methodist University basketball guard Carl Wright was arrested in Dallas, charged with driving with a suspended license and with having warrants for $316 outstanding.

Wright paid a total of $516 in fines and was released in time for Wednesday night’s game against Texas Tech. Leonardo David, once considered one of Italy’s most promising young skiers, died late Tuesday. David had been in a coma for four years after a fall at a pre-Olympic race at Lake Placid, N.Y. He was 24.

David fell a few meters from the finish line of the pre-Olympic event at Lake Placid March 3, 1979, and went into a coma. At the time of the accident, he was 18. A few days before the accident, he had won his first World Cup race.

David’s family brought a legal suit against the Italian ski federation, claiming that David was made to ski when he was in poor physical condition. The case is pending. The Minnesota North Stars have been fined $2,500 as the result of a brawl on Feb. 14 with the Detroit Red Wings that involved Coach Glen Sonmor. The brawl at the end of the first period of the game in Detroit was prolonged when Sonmor leaped from his bench and tried to get at injured Red Wing goalie Greg Stefan. Five of the first 11 witnesses in a federal grand jury investigation of possible race tampering at Midwestern tracks in Cincinnati invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify.

About 30 harness and thoroughbred horsemen are expected to go before the grand jury, which is reported to be looking into charges of race-fixing at Darby Downs, Latonia, River Downs, Lebanon Raceway and Toledo Raceway.