SUPREME COURT DENIES MN REQUEST ON MLB ANTITRUST STATUS

          MLB's 77-year-old exemption from antitrust laws
     "outlasted another challenge" in the U.S. Supreme Court
     yesterday, as justices "gave no reason for turning down a
     request by the [MN] attorney general to reopen the legal
     status of [the league] under federal and state antitrust
     laws," according to Lyle Denniston of the Baltimore SUN.  No
     justices filed a dissent.  In a case "stirred up by efforts
     to move the Twins out of" MN, the state "argued" that MLB
     uses its antitrust exemption "as a sword to extort public
     stadium subsidies by threatening to move unless its demands
     for new stadia are met."  By rejecting the appeal, the
     justices "set no new legal precedent," and "it was a clear
     signal that the court has no interest in abandoning an
     exemption."  MN's challenge to the exemption, which began in
     '97 when Owner Carl Pohlad agreed to sell the team to NC
     business exec Don Beaver in a deal that eventually fell
     through, had the support of 12 other states (SUN, 11/16).