Midseason Baseball Strike Looms

After two bargaining sessions that contained no bargaining,baseball still appears headed for a midseason strike.

"They see no reason to change," management negotiator RichardRavitch said Wednesday night after the meeting at an airport hotel,attended by about 50 players. "They like the current system."

Under the current system, players averaged $1,076,089 lastseason, according to the Major League Baseball Players Association.Owners claim they'll lose millions this year and want a salary captied to a revenue-sharing plan, but offer no public proof of theirlosses. The World Series will start in the city of the American Leaguechampion for the second straight season in 1994 because of baseball'sdesire to avoid conflict with the NFL schedule. Catcher Sandy Alomar agreed to a $7.65 million, three-year contractextension that will keep him with the Cleveland Indians at leastthrough 1997.

FOOTBALL: The Indianapolis Star reported that Bill Tobin, theIndianapolis Colts director of football operations, said he toldformer Bears quarterback Jim Harbaugh the team was likely to waituntil the April 24-25 draft before trying to sign him. Ex-Dallas Cowboy coach Jimmy Johnson's availability and the MiamiDolphins' change in ownership have left coach Don Shula with anadmitted sense of uncertainty about his job security. Shula'scontract with the Dolphins expires after the 1994 season, raising thepossibility that he'll then be replaced by Johnson. Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino underwent successful surgeryto remove bone spurs from his right ankle. The Philadelphia Eagles signed unrestricted free-agent defensivelineman William Fuller, 32, to a three-year, $8.4 million contract.Fuller, a former Houston Oiler, is an eight-year NFL veteran.

BASKETBALL: Dana Altman, who coached Kansas State to thesemifinals of this year's National Invitation Tournament, is the newcoach at Creighton. Former Xavier assistant coach Skip Prosser will return to the schoolas head coach, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

HOCKEY: Clayton Beddoes scored on a breakaway 4:16 intoovertime and Lake Superior State beat Harvard 3-2 at St. Paul, Minn.,to reach the NCAA championship game for the third straight season.Boston University defeated Minnesota 4-1 to reach the title game forthe seventh time.

SWIMMING: Mel Stewart, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist andworld record holder in the 200-meter butterfly, became the first U.S.swimmer to win 11 national titles in the same event, capturing the200 butterfly in 1:58.32 at the U.S. Swimming Championships atFederal Way, Wash.

GOLF: Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal shot a course-record9-under-par 63 to take a four-stroke lead over Sam Torrance after theopening round of the Freeport-McMoRan Golf Classic at New Orleans. Raymond Floyd opened with a 7-under-par 65 for a one-stroke leadover Gibby Gilbert in The Tradition at Phoenix.

BOWLING: Dennis Horan reclaimed the lead by five pins overPalatine's Bill Swanson after four rounds of the $180,000 SplitFireSpark Plug Open in Erie, Pa.

TENNIS: Top-seeded Pete Sampras beat fellow American JeffTarango 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) and fourth-seeded Ivan Lendl lost tounseeded Lionel Roux 6-3, 6-3 in the Salem Open at Osaka, Japan. Top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario beat Amanda Coetzer 7-6 (7-4),6-2 to move into the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup at HiltonHead Island, S.C.