BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : Status Quo Now Appeals to Reinsdorf

President Clinton hopes there isn’t a baseball strike, and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf broke ranks Sunday by saying he would be willing to have an agreement without a salary cap.

Clinton, at a Saturday night appearance in Cleveland, said he hoped there won’t be a work stoppage but didn’t say whether he would do anything about the threatened Aug. 12 strike by the Major League Baseball Players Assn.

“The first 15 people I shook hands with said, ‘Can’t you do anything about the baseball strike?’ ” he said.

Reinsdorf said at Comiskey Park that he could live with no change in the players’ salary structure.

“Right now, I’d be willing to sign for the same system,” he said. “I don’t want to go out, I really don’t. There is no gain for us. Even if we get everything we are looking for, whatever we would save in the cap we lose in revenue sharing. The best deal for us is to keep playing.”

*

A small, looped red ribbon on their uniforms and an emotional pre-game ceremony Sunday made the San Francisco Giants the nation’s first professional sports team to raise funds to fight AIDS.

The Giants held “Until There’s A Cure Day” and will donate $1 from every ticket sold to San Francisco Bay area non-profit organizations. They expected to raise more than $100,000 for AIDS treatment and research.

Peter Magowan, team president and managing general partner, said the Giants embraced the cause because of a “responsibility to the community.” He said the Giants sought to dispel many of the misconceptions about AIDS.

“I think it is a controversial cause,” Magowan said. “A lot of people associate it with a certain lifestyle--I think incorrectly . . . AIDS can affect anybody, whatever lifestyle, whatever sex, whatever age.”