Antitrust Exemption OK, Mitchell Says : Baseball: Senator says negotiations are answer. Unfortunately, there are none on Day 3 of strike.

There was no communication Sunday between negotiators for the baseball owners and striking players, and there is no meeting scheduled today. Both sides said they hoped to hear today from the federal mediators, with whom they met on Saturday, but the atmosphere on Day 3 of the work stoppage seemed to match the gray and rainy weather of New York.

The only development of the quiet day came in Washington, where Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), who will retire after the current Congressional session, said he did not believe the Senate should reconsider baseball’s antitrust exemption. Mitchell’s view was not a surprise; he is believed to be the leading candidate to become baseball’s next commissioner and the owners oppose removing the exemption.

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if the Senate Judiciary Committee, which voted, 10-7, in June against a bill that would have removed the exemption from the sport’s labor dealings, should reconsider, Mitchell said, “No, I don’t believe so. We’re dealing with health care and crime. . . . which will take all of our time.

“I believe this is a matter to be resolved by the parties in collective bargaining. That’s what the collective bargaining process is. That’s what it should be. I’m not involved in it in any way, despite all of the speculation. But I think it’s fair to say both sides are losing financially as a result of the strike, and it ought to be settled between them in their own collective bargaining. That’s the proper way to do it in our system.”

Don Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., has said repeatedly during the current negotiations that the owners are allowed to act in the manner of an unregulated monopoly because of the exemption. He has cited their withholding of a $7.8-million pension payment, the refusal to let owners sit at the bargaining table, the absence of a commissioner, the ongoing vacancies in the executive offices of the licensing department and a report on the restructuring of the commissioner’s office “that amounted to nothing” as some of the acts of a monopoly.

“I’m amazed that the owners have acted so irresponsibly, but that’s what a cartel does,” he said the other day.

Fehr declined interview requests Sunday, accepting the advice of mediators to let the rhetoric diminish. Meanwhile, Charlie Finley, former owner of the Oakland Athletics and a man seldom at a loss for words, predicted from his LaPorte, Ind., home that owners wouldn’t let the strike last more than another week because they can’t afford it.

“There’s a few clubs that have been sold recently or purchased for $100 million, $125 million, $150 million,” Finley said. “When they pay that much money, those guys are leveraged to the hilt, and have to make those payments.

“I foresee enough owners concerned about making them that they’re going to have to give in at the end. They’ve done it so many times before.”

Baseball’s eighth work stoppage since 1972 stems from the owners’ insistence on a salary cap the union says it will never accept and the union’s concern the owners will declare an impasse and implement a compensation system based on the cap.

“The problems today go back to when players wanted arbitration,” said Finley, 77. “I talked to every owner in both leagues and told them about the pitfalls of arbitration. And I was convinced at that time they’d vote against it for those reasons, but when it came time to vote, everybody voted for arbitration except Augie Busch of the Cardinals and Charlie Finley.

“(The owners) brought this on themselves by giving into arbitration to begin with. Don’t forget, you’re talking about a salary cap, and the (players) don’t want a salary cap because it eliminates arbitration.”