Dennis Gilbert

Gene Orza, associate general counsel of the Major League Players Assn., has confirmed that he was in Los Angeles last week investigating Dennis Gilbert, a Beverly Hills player agent who is under scrutiny for alleged non-compliance of agent regulations. Orza, reached Saturday in Los Angeles, said there were three aspects to his inquiry of Gilbert, but would not be specific. Orza previously would not confirm that there was an investigation, which was commissioned in January.

The annual "In the Spirit of the Game" gala, which raises money for baseball scouts who have retired or lost their jobs and need assistance, will be held Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. Increased focus on statistical analysis has resulted in the elimination of some scouting positions across baseball in recent years. "It absolutely cost scouts jobs," said Dennis Gilbert, chairman of the Professional Scouts Foundation, which is hosting the event. However, that trend could be reversed.

Angel Senior Vice President Whitey Herzog said that the Angels will meet next week with Dennis Gilbert, who represents Bobby Bonilla and Danny Tartabull. The New York Mets have contacted the agent for Wally Joyner of the Angels. Barry Axelrod said that Met General Manager Al Harazin called to arrange additional talks.

The owner of the reigning NBA champions will not be the next owner of the Dodgers. Mark Cuban was eliminated from the Dodgers' ownership sweepstakes Friday, along with baseball executive and former agent Dennis Gilbert, according to two people familiar with the process but not authorized to discuss it. At least eight bidders advanced to the second round Friday, including a group led by Magic Johnson and veteran baseball executive Stan Kasten...

Did agents ruin the old Hollywood? Conventional wisdom holds they did. The movie industry was a big, self-perpetuating oligarchy. It manufactured stars, ground out product, filled the theaters, sold popcorn, produced a fantasy world on and off screen. It filled magazines, fueled dreams and was a mecca for the stage struck all over the world. When the studios controlled the stars, it was the greatest show on earth. Blockbuster movies could be made for a million dollars.

Dennis Gilbert, a Beverly Hills player agent, has been absolved by the Major League Baseball Players Assn. for alleged noncompliance of union regulations, according to Gene Orza, the union's associate general counsel. "We have disposed of the matter and no discipline is being imposed (on Gilbert)," Orza said Thursday of the 16-month-old investigation. Orza said he sent a "series" of letters to Gilbert this week absolving him.

The annual "In the Spirit of the Game" gala, which raises money for baseball scouts who have retired or lost their jobs and need assistance, will be held Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. Increased focus on statistical analysis has resulted in the elimination of some scouting positions across baseball in recent years. "It absolutely cost scouts jobs," said Dennis Gilbert, chairman of the Professional Scouts Foundation, which is hosting the event. However, that trend could be reversed.

It's the symbolism, stupid. As Americans lose their jobs and homes at a frequency unseen in decades, baseball convenes today for its annual holiday shopping spree in Las Vegas. The setting, according to the hotel website: "Contentment and opulence are the hallmarks of your Bellagio hotel luxury experience." The pitch, according to baseball executives from the commissioner on down: Believe us, times are tough.

It already has been an emotional fall for Dennis Gilbert. The Los Angeles activist and lifetime baseball man contributed to the Chicago White Sox's World Series victory as special assistant to the chairman, but lost out in bidding for the Dodgers' then-vacant general manager position.

Former agent Dennis Gilbert, who has spent the last three years working as a special assistant to Chicago White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, interviewed for the Dodger general manager job Saturday. Gilbert, a Los Angeles native and longtime Dodger follower who was part of a Jeff Smulyan-led group that failed in its bid to purchase the Dodgers last year, was recommended for the position by Reinsdorf.

He has played for some of the best teams of his era, been to several Super Bowls. Yet he's never won one. Football fans throughout the country sympathize with him, especially those who followed him as a college player on the West Coast. Even one of the Packers says losing the Super Bowl on Sunday would hurt less because it would result in a ring for him in what could be his last game. I am talking, of course, about Mike Lodish. Who did you think, John Elway? Why does he need a ring?

Phil Pote stands dwarfed among the dirt and steel and grumble of the earthmovers, and rarely has a man looked so big. This churned-up bit of Los Angeles Southwest College is going to be a tidy little corner of hope one day, he just feels it, the way an old scout can look at a kid and feel his fastball. Pote is only $150,000 short. And what's $150,000 to a guy who has spent a lifetime picking up gems from the streets of South-Central Los Angeles? He wanted to call his project "Field of Dreams."

The producer of "Saturday Night Live" is holding on Line 1. . . . Better pick up Line 2, Bret Saberhagen is calling from an airplane. . . . Did you call back the people at Fox? . . . Is everything set with Michael Bolton? . . . When does "Seinfeld" need Danny Tartabull again? Dennis Gilbert, perhaps the most prominent agent in baseball, works in a fancy office building in Beverly Hills, complete with a panoramic view of the city from his penthouse suite.

Did agents ruin the old Hollywood? Conventional wisdom holds they did. The movie industry was a big, self-perpetuating oligarchy. It manufactured stars, ground out product, filled the theaters, sold popcorn, produced a fantasy world on and off screen. It filled magazines, fueled dreams and was a mecca for the stage struck all over the world. When the studios controlled the stars, it was the greatest show on earth. Blockbuster movies could be made for a million dollars.

Whitey Herzog, whose annoyance with agent Dennis Gilbert led him to say last month that he would negotiate with outfielder Danny Tartabull "only if he had another agent," has scheduled a Tuesday meeting with Gilbert, probably at Gilbert's office in Beverly Hills. That sets the stage for a rapprochement between the two, whose friendship was fractured when Herzog declared Gilbert misled him by saying Bobby Bonilla wanted to play for the Angels. Bonilla eventually signed with the New York Mets.