sports columns

The conversation started recently Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association since 1986, announced he would step down next year. As leader of sports' most powerful union, Fehr has to be considered one of the most influential sports figures ever, doesn't he?

Random notes, idle thoughts and keeping it clean around the sports world ...

-- Those who signed on to the Manny Ramirez Inland Empire Tour the past few days may have seen a Hall of Fame-caliber player, but probably not a future Hall of Famer.

Dear Babe: I have an ASA Mickey Mantle Story set with the autographed card. Would the signed card increase in value if I had it authenticated? -- Shannon Scott, Evansville, Ind.

I'm a sports traditionalist.

When I was a child, I adopted my favorite sports teams -- the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Vikings and University of Iowa Hawkeyes -- and I haven't wavered since, through all of the heartache that Steve Bartman, Gary Anderson, the Atlanta Falcons and Steve Alford have caused me.

Don't plan on it anytime soon, either.

Dear Babe: I was a caddie in 1996 at the Disney golf tournament, which Tiger Woods won. I had him sign my caddie pass. -- Tom Freeman, Plainfield Ill.

Dear Babe: I was looking through my 1977 Pepsi baseball disc set, and yes, I know that the value is lowered because they have been separated from the gloves. I noticed that there are four variations of Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson -- different colors on the card edges. I haven't seen any collector's almanacs that list these variations.

Drugs couldn't kill baseball. Despite the morality plays, the kangaroo court, the mass hand-wringing about rewriting record books, the sport emerged from the steroid era having paid much lip service and offered much penance, and as a business stronger than ever.

Dear Babe: I have a newspaper photo dated Aug. 8, 1928, that pictures Lou Gehrig, Johnny Evers and Babe Ruth. All three signed it. -- Ron Hermann, Riverside, Calif.

Dear Babe: I have a Notre Dame football signed by all the former Heisman Trophy winners -- Angelo Bertelli, John Lujack, John Lattner, Leon Hart, Paul Hornung, John Huarte and Tim Brown. It says No. 3,589 of 5,000. I think I bought in the 1980s. -- Bob Higgins, Lawrenceville, Ga.

There few limits to how far Da Babe will go in his quest for information. That probably explains how I ended up chatting about autographs and memorabilia with Pietro Piller Cottrer, Italy's top cross country skier, in a "palestra (gym)'' in this small town in the Italian Alps near the Austrian border.