Jim Poole should have reported to spring training yesterday.
He should have been throwing soft tosses off the mound, covering first base and running in the outfield. Instead, Poole testified yesterday before the State Senate Finance Committee in support of two bills designed to keep replacement games out of Camden Yards.
"I can't say I'm very comfortable," Poole, dressed in a gray suit and a Nicole Miller baseball tie, told the committee. "This is not the uniform I'm usually wearing on this date."
For one of the few times during this six-month strike, union and management testified at a legislative hearing -- on the same side.
Both Poole, a free-agent pitcher who has spent the past four seasons in the Orioles organization, and Joe Foss, Orioles vice chairman of business and finance, supported the companion bills that back the stand of Orioles owner Peter Angelos against replacement players.
Introduced by Sen. John Pica and Del. Sandy Rosenberg, the bills prevent the Orioles and other major-league teams from advertising and playing their games at Camden Yards if fewer than 75 percent of the players were not in the major leagues the year before.
Foss brought the results of a poll the Orioles conducted last month, showing that Orioles season-ticket holders favor no games over replacement games. He said a Maryland law would reinforce a section of the American League constitution that says owners do not have to field teams during a strike.
At Wednesday's U.S. Senate hearings on baseball's antitrust exemption, acting commissioner Bud Selig provided the Orioles owner with words of warning: "If that's the way the constitution has been interpreted, I can tell you that others have interpreted it differently."
In making his stand against replacement players, Angelos could be fined $250,000 or even lose the franchise to the American League.
Foss reiterated Angelos' resolve: "Over time they're going to understand they do not have a strong position and they do not want to publicly sanction the Baltimore Orioles."
Foss, Poole and everyone else who spoke at yesterday's hearing seemed to support Angelos' stance, particularly if it helps to protect Cal Ripken's consecutive-games streak. But there are several legal obstacles to passing the state bills.
The biggest one is whether state laws forbidding replacement ++ workers would violate the National Labor Relations Act. The U.S. Supreme Court has come down on both sides of this debate. Pica, the Senate sponsor of the bills, said that the state-financed ballpark gives the legislature proper jurisdiction.
"These bills do not put us in a position to be a regulator," said Pica, who works in Angelos' law office but submitted the bills at the request of Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. "It just protects our interest in Oriole Park at Camden Yards."
Another bill to deter the use of replacement players in Baltimore was submitted late last month by city councilmen Joseph J. DiBlasi and Anthony Ambridge. According to Pica, similar bills have been introduced in New York, Ohio, Washington and Michigan.
The legality of the Maryland bills was questioned not only as a violation of federal law but also as a breach of contract with the Maryland Stadium Authority. Herbert J. Belgrad, the authority's outgoing chairman, said he supports Angelos' position but believes the Senate bills would expose the state to a lawsuit from Major League Baseball.
Amid arguments over federal and state jurisdiction and third-party beneficiaries sat Poole, taking notes.
Poole said he did not miss the opening workouts of spring training as much as he missed being reunited with his striking teammates.
"It was always a fun, joyous day," said Poole, who is one of 600 unsigned players. "Almost everybody would go out after workouts and sit down and start shooting the breeze and catching up on everybody else."