Owners

There isn't a single black or Hispanic manager in the major leagues, but you probably already knew that. There isn't a single black or Hispanic general manager in the major leagues, but you probably already knew that, too. And you also probably already knew that there isn't a single black or Hispanic owner in the major leagues, either. Jesse Jackson certainly knew all that. So why is he smiling? Why did he come out of yesterday's 60-minute summit meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel with baseball's all-Caucasian owners throwing kisses instead of daggers?

In a move that likely will result in Kansas City or Milwaukee switching to the National League next season, baseball owners finally approved a realignment plan yesterday. Detroit will go from the American League East to the AL Central, and the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays will replace the Tigers in the AL East. The AL team to switch leagues will be designated after the World Series, and owners and officials said the Royals had first choice. If Kansas City declines, Milwaukee has agreed to move, they said.

Please don't call this week a waste. Please don't say nothing was accomplished in the four solid days of negotiating between major league baseball's players and owners. On Tuesday, meal money was increased from $60.50 to $63.50 a day. Clubs now will be required to provide English language courses to any player requesting them. The next collective bargaining agreement will be printed in both English and Spanish. Of course by then, the two languages will likely have changed significantly.

Reaching a labor deal soon is hardly a done deal in the NFL. Team owners will be updated on recent negotiations with the players when they meet in Chicago on Tuesday. They've been told to prepare to stay an extra day because of the complexity of the proposals both sides have discussed in sessions over the last 3 weeks. Getting the required 24 of 32 owners to agree on anything can be difficult, let alone something as complex as a new collective bargaining agreement. And there has been enough pushback from owners familiar with those proposals that progress made recently might not lead to an agreement in the next few weeks.

The awards just kept coming last Sunday for Lawrence and Hazel Waltman, owners of Sunset Music Park in Jennersville. There were the plaques from the Grand Ole Opry and the City of Nashville, and the gold records from MCA Records and the Country Music Industry. "We were flabbergasted," Hazel Waltman said of the presentations, which were made by county music star Marty Stuart. The country music industry honored the Waltman family for the 53 years it has been running Sunset Park.

Curt Schilling, whose right arm yielded a tidy 5-1 win over the Mets on Tuesday, tossed some barbs at baseball's owners last night. Schilling, a Phillies assistant player representative to the players association, made a round trip to New York yesterday for the latest meetings in the labor-management dispute. He was not happy to get there and see that none of the owners had made an appearance, though a players' strike is scheduled to shut down the season after tonight's games. "I got up at 7:30 in the morning.

Baseball owners abandoned their attempt to get a luxury tax this season and apparently moved a little closer to the union's proposal in a new offer yesterday. After a two-hour meeting at the union's office in New York, owners said they would agree to the union's plan for a 2.5 percent payroll tax in 1996, with each player to give back that percentage of his salary to a fund to be used for, among other things, increased revenue sharing and an industry growth fund. Teams said that for 1997 they would accept either a 25 percent luxury tax to be paid by clubs on the amount of payrolls above $44 million, or a 5 percent payroll tax to be paid by players.

Amid considerable upheaval and mounting tension between the haves and have- nots, baseball's ruling executive council met in Milwaukee last night to assess the sport's unsettled labor situation. Dozens of free agents have changed teams and leagues in the past few days, including several stars who have been dealt from small-market teams to large- market rivals. The owners claim their combined losses during the 232-day strike were at least $700 million. Without a collective bargaining agreement and economic restructuring, they were under increasing pressure to move the process along.

If the football players have any doubts that they lost their strike, all they have to do is look at the latest Forbes magazine. In it, they'll find a list of the 400 wealthiest people in America - men and women whose individual fortunes range from $8.5 billion to a modest $225 million. Included in this awesome list are at least eight super-rich individuals or their offspring who own all or part of eight of the National Football League franchises. One of the wealthiest of the franchise owners is William C. Ford, of the auto family, who owns the Detroit Lions and has a bundle estimated at $900 million.

The Major League Baseball Players Association said yesterday its representatives will likely meet with owners tomorrow, raising the possibility of the first negotiating session since the season was called off on Sept. 14. Eugene Orza, the union's No. 2 official, said it had not been decided whether the meeting would be formal or informal. "I wouldn't read too much into the significance of the first meeting," Orza said. "It very well may be to discuss future format more than substance.