Owners Will Call Umpires Out After Weekend

It isn’t strike II, it’s lockout I in baseball.

Baseball’s second labor dispute began Wednesday when owners notified umpires they will be locked out after this weekend and won’t be paid.

National League President Len Coleman said the umpires received the lockout notification by overnight mail. Umpires are paid on a year-round basis and their four-year contract expires Saturday.

“The union’s request for a 60-percent pay increase is astronomical,” Coleman said. “Given the tenor of the times, these demands are completely out of order.”

Last week, the umpires’ union filed unfair labor practice charges against both leagues with the National Labor Relations Board office in Philadelphia, accusing the leagues of bargaining in bad faith.

“Misery doesn’t love company in this case,” said players’ union head Donald Fehr.

Meanwhile, the players’ strike completed its 139th day.

Baltimore Oriole shortstop Cal Ripken has the blessing of striking players if he wants to cross their picket line to keep his consecutive games streak alive, according to The Houston Post.

Houston Astros relief pitcher Todd Jones said the union has told Ripken it won’t mind if he’s on the field with strikebreakers if that is how owners insist on starting the 1995 season.

Ripken has played in 2,009 consecutive games and is 122 games shy of breaking Lou Gehrig’s major-league record.

Hockey

There was no contact between the NHL and its players association and none planned, leading sources connected with the league and the union to say negotiations probably won’t resume until next week.

It’s expected that Commissioner Gary Bettman will then urge union chief Bob Goodenow to reconsider his stance of refusing to talk as long as the NHL continues to seek a payroll tax or concessions from players on salary arbitration rights.

A league source said Bettman is not prepared to cancel the season and denied reports the commissioner has set a deadline of Jan. 6 for a season-saving agreement.

A settlement after Jan. 1, however, would result in a season of fewer than 50 games, the minimum previously established by the league’s Board of Governors.

Soccer

Mexico, which played host to the 1970 and 1986 World Cup tournaments, has submitted a bid for the 2002 event. Mexico’s rivals are South Korea and Japan.

The 1998 tournament will be in France. South Africa and Germany have applied to stage the 2006 tournament.

Miscellany

Members of three teams competing at the world junior hockey championships in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, were robbed of an undetermined amount of money.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said thieves made off with money in a variety of currencies when they broke into about 40 hotel rooms housing players from the Czech, Russian and German hockey teams.

A search plane located French sailor Isabelle Autissier alive aboard her yacht in heavy seas more than 850 miles off the south coast of Australia on Thursday, 18 hours after she activated emergency beacons, officials of the BOC Round The World Challenge yacht race said.