CRITICS: BASEBALL NEEDS CLEANUP

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993                   TAG: 9302050088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
CRITICS: BASEBALL NEEDS CLEANUP
Civil rights leaders agreed Thursday that baseball's suspension and fining of Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott for uttering racial and ethnic slurs is less important than the sport's making progress on minority issues.
And whether they thought Schott's one-year suspension by the executive council of baseball owners was too lenient or too harsh, sports columnists tended to write that her peers had handled it badly.
People in Cincinnati were just glad that Schott was chastened.
For one year starting March 1, Schott will be banned from doing her daily baseball business. She's barred from contact with officials of her team or any other and can't sit in the front row by the dugout, but must sit upstairs in Riverfront Stadium in the owner's box.
She was also fined $25,000. She could be reinstated Nov. 1, however, if she complies with the sanctions, which include cultural diversity training.
Schott has had no comment on any of this since the penalties were announced Wednesday night.
But critics had plenty to say.
"The owners doing this ceremonial thing to Marge is like the Mafia fining [convicted mob boss John] Gotti," said the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York. "They're all guilty."
Harry Edwards, a sociology professor at the University of California at Berkeley, long an activist on racial issues, said baseball must look ahead.
"Only a shortsighted, vengeful individual could believe it is relevant in terms of the racism and discrimination that permeates major-league baseball," Edwards said of Schott's punishment. "It has no impact in terms of the basic problem of racism and discriminatory attitudes in baseball."
Rachel Robinson, the widow of Jackie Robinson, the first black major leaguer, said she approved of the sanctions against Schott. The impact will be lost if nothing more is done, however, she said.
"You hope this has the effect of catalyzing the industry and the game as a whole to . . . provide programs for racial minorities," Robinson said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB