Location of Baseball Conference Changed

Editor's note: Speakers at the conference will be available for media interviews from 1:00 ­ 1:30 p.m. in Wright Hall Common Room. Media are welcome to film during conference proceedings as well.

To accommodate a larger than anticipated audience, the Nov. 17 conference titled "Baseball's Future: Competitive Balance and Labor Relations" will be held in Wright Hall Auditorium, rather than in Stoddard Hall Auditorium as previously announced.

The conference, which is free and open to the public, will feature eight leading figures in sports economics, journalism and management discussing ways to restore competition and avoid labor strife in America's pastime.

Conference sessions begin at 1:30 p.m. with a keynote address by noted sports boradcaster Bob Costas, author, most recently, of the best-selling book "Fair Ball: A Fan's Case For Baseball." Following Costas' presentation will be remarks and discussion by John Genzale, editor, Sports Business Journal; Clark Griffith, former owner, Minnesota Twins; Marvin Miller, founder and former director, Major League Baseball Players' Association; Roger Noll, economist, Stanford University, and sports consultant; Allen Sanderson, economist, University of Chicago, and sports consultant; Randy Vataha, president of a sports consulting firm and former Stanford University and New England Patriots football player; and conference organizer Andrew Zimbalist, Smith College economist and author of "Baseball and Billions," "Sports, Jobs and Taxes," and "Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports."

At 5 p.m., following the conference, there will be a reception and booksigning for Costas in Wright Hall Common Room.

Contact: Laurie Fenlason, 413/585-2190, lfenlason@smith.edu

November 9, 2000