"Amid mounting pressure from the nearby White House,
negotiators for the baseball owners and players put the central
issue of management's proposed luxury tax on hold Thursday while
narrowing differences on issues classified as non-economic,"
reports Ross Newhan of the L.A. TIMES.  Both MLBPA Exec Dir
Donald Fehr and the owners' lead negotiator Red Sox CEO John
Harrington said Special Mediator William Usery has made it clear,
once again, that President Clinton "expects a settlement or
significant progress"  by his Monday deadline.  Harrington called
the White House pressure "Heavy, heavy pressure."  Fehr: "Usery
emphasized in extremely strong language that the President
expects this to be resolved" (L.A. TIMES, 2/3).  Usery made his
comments after an afternoon meeting with Clinton aides.  Usery
also "rejected a union suggestion that it might be best to wait
an additional week" before a 3rd-party effort was made to settle
(Tracy Ringolsby, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 2/3).
     YESTERDAY'S SESSION:  Fehr said the union would not respond
to the owners' two-tiered luxury tax proposal until today or
Saturday, but he did report that several non-economic areas of
disagreement had been "narrowed."  As for the economic system,
Fehr said their proposal will determine whether the two sides are
within "shouting distance" (Peter Schmuck, Baltimore SUN, 2/3).
     SOME WEEKEND HOPE:  Harrington: "In negotiations, things get
done at the last minute.  They may not always get done in the
best possible manner.  But once the larger issues get resolved,
things can happen very quickly" (PHILA.  INQUIRER, 2/3).  One MLB
owner said he expects a settlement this weekend (Mark Maske,
WASHINGTON POST, 2/3).
     AN USERY RESOLUTION?  In Washington, Thom Loverro examines a
possible Usery-forced solution. "There is a strong belief among
some close to the talks that his settlement would be far better
than anything the players could get from the owners."  Privately,
some management officials believe that it will "ultimately come"
to an Usery settlement (WASHINGTON TIMES, 2/3).  ESPN's Peter
Gammons thinks the Clinton deadline will pass and calls the first
week of March key because that is when "teams are going to try to
force top minor league players to play with replacement players
and it's not going to work.  Then, I think all the pressure on
replacement players may cause the owners to force a settlement"
("SportsCenter," 2/2).
     NEWS & NOTES:  Padres President Larry Lucchino said the club
would consider having the team's manager and coaches not work
with replacements (WASHINGTON POST, 2/3)....Two IL state
legislators have introduced a bill that would strip Comiskey Park
of $27M in state aid while replacement players play in the park
(CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/3).

     "Seemingly overnight, there's been an explosion of figure
skating events," according to Alexandra Peers of the WALL STREET
JOURNAL.  Peers notes the many rival skating competitions, and
made-for-TV contests, but also points out the "record high" in-
fighting and turf battles within the sport.  Jerry Lace, Exec Dir
at the USFSA: "Everybody got into this business and there is no
rhyme or reason; it is being driven by money."  Nye Lavalle,
Chair of Sport Marketing Group/Dallas says figure skating is the
"most poorly managed sport" and has advised his coporate clients
"not to make full time commitments to the sport.  It has no
organized amateur structure, no organized professional structure,
no one person who can deliver the names." Lavalle said that is
why skating trails both tennis and golf in the amount of
sponsorship dollars even though it has higher TV ratings
(Alexandra Peers, WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/3).

     Although the two-hour conference call by MLB's expansion
committee "produced nothing," it appears" that it has determined
a price.  According to the TAMPA TRIBUNE, the committee is
"zeroing in" on a price of $140M per franchise (Bill Chastain,
TAMPA TRIBUNE, 2/3).  Phoenix and Tampa Bay are the frontrunners
to be granted the next two expansion teams.  Red Sox CEO John
Harrington, Chair of the expansion committee, said he
"anticipated there may be a full ownership meeting later this
month" at which time a vote on the "overall recommendation" to
expand could be made.  However, Harrington warned that if the
labor dispute is not resolved, "he may not be able to get the
owners to vote" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 2/3).
     INTERLEAGUE PLAY?  According to Tom Keegan in today's N.Y.
POST, since the owners, because of expansion, are "leaning
toward" inter-league play. "The schedule will call for each team
to play anywhere from 16-30 interleague games" (N.Y. POST, 2/3).
In Boston, Red Sox GM Dan Duquette thinks that interleague play
"is the next step toward international major league baseball"
(Mike Shalin, BOSTON HERALD, 2/3).  ESPN's Keith Olbermann:
"Interleague play, they can't even introduce inter-team play!"
("SportsCenter," 2/2).
     ORLANDO VS TAMPA-BAY: In Orlando, Dan Tracy & Lawrence
Lebowitz note why Orlando is a better choice for expansion.
"Orlando's projected growth into the year 2000 far surpasses
Tampa-St. Petersburg" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/2).
     GET THIS!  The "latest rumor" making the rounds is that
George Steinbrenner wants to move the Yankee's to Tampa.  The
"rumor gained some legs yesterday when it was revealed that
Steinbrenner gave the Tampa-based Florida Orchestra" $1M to get
out of debt, a "gesture" to show just how "fond Steinbrenner is
of his Florida base."  When the team's lease runs out in 2002,
"southern Florida's population will be bigger, richer, and older"
(Neal Travis, N.Y. POST, 2/3).

     The owners of the Colorado Silver Bullets women's
professional baseball team announced the formation of a six-team
league for women that will start play next summer in cities along
the Mediterranean Sea.  Valencia and Barcelona, Spain;
Montpellier and Nice, France; and Parma, Italy are mentioned as
initial sites.  Along with Hope-Beckham, the Atlanta marketing
firm who owns the Silver Bullets, William Collins is an investor
in the project.  Collins is heading the group seeking MLB
expansion for No. VA.  The players will be chosen from the over
2,500 women who tried out for the Silver Bullets last year
(Silver Bullets).
     MARTINA AT THE PLATE? Martina Navratilova will get a private
tryout with the Silver Bullets. Linda Dozoretz, Navratilova's
publicist: "She's interested and they are talking" (Glen Sheeley,
ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 2/3).

     In the wake of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's cover story on the bad
boys of the NBA, the current issue of SPORT profiles the NBA's
All Class Team. "Amid all this trash-talking, finger-pointing,
chest-thumping and camera-posing," the league's classy players
are almost "forgotten."  The "bad boys of the NBA have muscled
the good guys clear out of the spotlight."  Among the classy: Joe
Dumars, Mark Price, Clyde Drexler, Grant Hill, Dan Majerle, Buck
Williams and David Robinson.   When asked what caused the
problem, some say "the NBA helped create this potential monster
when it accepted the Bad Boys image created by Dennis Rodman,
Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas."  Dumars: "The league and
everybody else jumped on that and promoted the heck out of the
Bad Boys" (Darryl Howerton, SPORT, 3/95 issue).