Lockout

Bob Dernier takes his kids to sign up for the Blue Springs, Mo., Little League and tries to plan the rest of his life. Greg Gross swings a bat in his basement in Malvern and wonders whether he'll ever get the seven hits he needs to go down in pinch-hitting history. Not very long ago, Dernier and Gross were productive big-league ballplayers. Now they are hostages of the lockout. They have no jobs. They have no teams. The Phillies waved goodbye to Dernier last fall. The Astros told Gross "so long" after the season.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The federal judge overseeing the NFL players' request to lift a lockout by the owners said it will take "a couple of weeks" to rule. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson, however, urged both sides to get back to the bargaining table. Nelson heard arguments from lawyers for the players and NFL owners yesterday in St. Paul. The players say their careers are being irreparably harmed by the lockout. The owners say Nelson doesn't have the jurisdiction to issue an injunction while there is a complaint before the National Labor Relations Board.

If the NHL owners lock the players out next season over a new collective bargaining agreement, at least one Flyer intends to remain employed. Center Jeremy Roenick said yesterday he has already had informal discussions with fellow players and others about either playing in Germany or for the new World Hockey Association - if that league ever gets on the ice. "It's just rumblings going on, no real talks," Roenick said. "My options would be to go to Europe. And I have had some friendly talks with [Detroit Red Wings star]

Major-league baseball players and owners, fresh from grappling with such lofty issues as salary arbitration and "minimum salaries" of $100,000, yesterday confronted two problems from the real world: Pitchers will have a tough time getting ready for an opening day only three weeks away, and when it comes to calling the shots, television calls a lot of them. Some owners, such as Bill Giles of the Phillies, had hoped that, because of the shortened spring training - which begins today - and the resulting concerns about the stamina of the players, especially pitchers, the 26 major- league teams would be permitted to carry as many as 30 players for the first month of the season, rather than the usual 24. Giles and other owners also had hoped that the season would be extended an extra week to allow for a full schedule of 162 games.

Lockout? Jeffrey Kessler says no one from the NBA has so much as mentioned the word. Lockout? Isn't that what the NBA intimated it would implement Monday if a final collective bargaining agreement wasn't reached? Lockout? Didn't league officials walk away from the table Tuesday when the players union asked for an additional $31 million in licensing money over the next eight years? "We spent more than five hours negotiating [yesterday]," said Kessler, who represented the dissident players during last summer's negotiating crisis, which included a lockout lasting more than two months.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - A federal appeals court threw the NFL back into chaos late yesterday, putting a judge's order lifting the lockout on hold. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis granted the league's request for a temporary stay of the injunction issued Monday that ended the 45-day lockout. Now arguments will be heard on whether that order should be overturned altogether. "The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the motion for a stay pending appeal," the appeals court said.

INDIANAPOLIS - The longer the NFL's labor spat lasts, the more complicated it may become for the Eagles to sign Michael Vick to a long-term contract. That's because under the existing collective bargaining agreement, designated franchise players can sign extensions only up until July 15. After that date, long-term deals have to wait until after the season. Normally, the deadline leaves months to work out contract extensions that go beyond the one-year franchise tender, but there can be no formal long-term offers between the Eagles and Vick until a new CBA is signed.

NEW YORK - As hockey prepared for its first work stoppage since the 2004-05 season was wiped out, the NHL Players Association planned to challenge a lockout before labor boards in Quebec and Alberta. The moves, if successful, could force teams to pay players on the Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers during a work stoppage. The sport's labor contract expires at midnight Saturday night, and a lockout appears certain. It would be the league's fourth work stoppage since 1992.

A deal is a deal is a deal. Until, of course, it isn't. That appears to be what happened yesterday after NBA officials met with Players Association representatives for nearly seven hours, after which commissioner David Stern said he was "disgusted. " Pencil in the specter of a lockout that would be imposed at 11:59 Sunday night. Stern would not confirm the imminence of the second lockout in as many summers, but the hard reality is a six-year collective bargaining agreement hammered out last summer remains unsigned.

AN UNFORTUNATE byproduct of the NHL lockout is that it has put a crimp on many of the charitable initiatives of the Flyers' wives. The longer the stalemate drags on, for instance, the less likely the very popular Flyers' Wives Carnival will be able to take place. But Kristen Laviolette, the coach's wife, is trying her best to keep the philanthropy going. On Saturday, she will help host the Flyers Charities Halloween 5K run and walk at the Wells Fargo Center at 9 a.m. Proceeds benefit local non-profits.