ALL-STAR NOTES : September Strike Hinted by Players

Don Fehr, executive director of the Major League Players Assn., raised the possibility Tuesday of a strike by the union in September.

Fehr appeared at a seminar on labor relations and was asked about the possibility of a work stoppage next year.

“I reminded them that it did not have to be next year,” Fehr said while visiting with players before the All-Star game.

“But that’s not to suggest there’s been a vote taken, or that there’s a resolution or deadline.”

It does suggest that the union will not close the door on any options as it waits for the owners to make a proposal on a new compensation system.

The owners voted in December to reopen collective negotiations a year before the current contract expires, but they have yet to make a proposal to the union while trying to agree first on a system of enhanced revenue sharing among the clubs.

Said Fehr: “The latest indication I have is that they will make a proposal in the middle of August, but that’s awfully late (if the owners hope to change the conditions of employment in time for the off-season contract signings).”

It has been thought the owners would stage a spring lockout if they don’t get a new system, but a preemptive strike by the union in September would come when the players leverage is strongest, threatening the approximate $300 million in postseason TV revenue the owners are scheduled to receive in the last year of the contract with CBS.

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A whirlwind series of cross-country flights brought Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda back to Baltimore in time to serve as a National League coach for the seventh time.

Lasorda, who left New York with the Dodgers late Sunday night to attend Don Drysdale’s funeral in Glendale on Monday, returned Tuesday morning on a red eye and is scheduled to go back to Los Angeles for Thursday’s opening of the second half this morning.

“This game means a lot to me, but I had to go back,” Lasorda said. “Don and I were like brothers.”

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Lasorda, who has criticized Andres Galarraga for making a “cheap shot” slide on Jody Reed that put the Dodgers’ second baseman on the disabled list, did not use the All-Star game as a stage for continuing the rhetoric.

“He shook my hand and wished me good luck,” the Colorado Rockie first baseman said. “I feel sorry for Reed because it was not his fault that I got hit (with a pitch from Ramon Martinez), but it was not a cheap shot. I went into second hard, but it was legal.”

The June 15 incidents in Denver played a role in two brawls between the teams, but Galarraga said he didn’t know if the bad blood would resurface when the teams meet again in early August.

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said. “All I know is that I’ll be careful.”

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Paul Molitor, starting as the American League designated hitter in his fifth All-Star game, joined Pete Rose as the only players to appear at five different positions. Molitor was the oldest player in this year’s game at 36. “That’s something I have to be proud of,” he said.

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A tentative settlement was reached in a class-action lawsuit that accused the San Diego Padres of defrauding season-ticket holders by trading star players such as Gary Sheffield and Darrin Jackson. Plaintiffs contended the club deceived season-ticket holders by advising them in a November letter that the core of the team--Sheffield, Jackson, Fred McGriff and others--would be with the Padres throughout the season.

The tentative settlement was reached after three days of negotiations among attorneys. It still must be approved by Superior Court Judge Harrison Hollywood, who scheduled an Aug. 23 hearing on the matter. Under the settlement, plaintiffs dropped a request for punitive damages in favor of a more liberal refund policy for season-ticket holders as well as those with tickets for individual games.

One key part of the settlement agreement gives the Padres an option to rescind it if at least 40 of their approximately 11,000 season-ticket holders notify the club of their opposition to the deal by Aug. 16.

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The Rev. Jesse Jackson led about 250 people in a protest before the game in an effort to spur major league baseball into adopting an affirmative action plan.

Jackson’s National Rainbow Coalition, which sponsored the demonstration outside Camden Yards, wants baseball owners to put more minorities and women into front-office jobs.

The slogan-chanting demonstrators, carrying placards reading, “Jackie Robinson Didn’t Give Up And Neither Will We” and “More Jobs, Less Talk,” drew only slight curiosity from fans. There were no reports of confrontations.

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Only two seasons ago Gregg Jefferies was playing for the New York Mets. But as far as he’s concerned, it might as well have been a lifetime.

Jefferies was booed by the fans in New York, ostracized by his teammates for his adolescent complaints and all but run out of town in a trade to Kansas City. Then came another trade to St. Louis and another chance to start over.

He attributes his happiness to more than a change of venue, more than a switch to first base.

“I’ve relaxed, grown up, gotten married,” Jefferies said. “In New York I lived and died baseball. But now I’m married, and I’ve found there are a lot of things more important.”

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Some people marvel at the red-brick warehouse beyond the right-field fence. Others gush over the Oriole weather vanes and ironwork clock atop the scoreboard. For others, it’s the bullpens, where fans can picnic while watching relievers throw 90-m.p.h. fastballs.

Phillie catcher Darren Daulton, a newcomer to Baltimore, was asked his opinion. He stood in the clubhouse--spanking clean and big enough to play a set of tennis--and looked around.

“The toilets,” he said. “They’re real nice.”

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Two sons of former All-Stars were in the lineup Tuesday night. Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr. was appearing in his fourth All-Star game, one more than his father, Ken Griffey Sr. San Francisco’s Barry Bonds was playing in his third, matching the total of his father, Bobby.

The family record belongs to the Bells, with nine appearances--Buddy Bell (five) and his father, Gus (four).

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The whales had their moment in the spotlight. A sign in center field early in the game urged St. Louis Cardinal chairman of the board August Busch III, also the owner of the Sea World exhibit, to free two of the more prominent whales on display in the aquatic show--Corky and Shamu. The sign was unfurled next to a huge ad for Budweiser, also owned by the Busch family. The sign lasted some two innings before going the way of the National League--taken down.

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The National League still leads the All-Star series, 37-26-1, despite losing the last six. . . . Attendance was 48,147, largest in the stadium’s two-year history. . . . The next two All-Star games are at Pittsburgh (1994) and Texas (1995).