Pubdate: Sun, 02 Jul 2000 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company Contact: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: Allen D. Boyer LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD This provocative book combines the broad knowledge of an all-seasons sports fan with the clarity of an antitrust lawyer. Paul C. Weiler, the Henry J. Friendly professor of law at Harvard, approaches major league sports as a special study in cartel theory. ''The very existence of a game to play, let alone a championship race to savor, requires that the participants cooperate off the field to create a fair and balanced matchup on the field,'' he writes. To manage the problems of professional sports, Weiler prefers flexible caps -- for example, on gambling, player salaries and stadiums -- instead of outright bans. He argues that ballplayers should be allowed to bet on games so long as a bar on fixing games stays in effect; players' contracts already offer bonuses for winning games (effectively, a wager), and modern salaries have probably priced players out of gamblers' reach. Similarly, he rejects the current loophole-riddled policy against drug use. Instead, because performance-enhancing drugs give users a secret advantage, he would have league officials crack down on steroids and androstenedione, while letting teams make case-by-case judgments on players who use marijuana or cocaine. To limit the ability of team owners to blackmail cities into building new stadiums, Weiler would revise the tax code. He would reclassify the bonds used to finance stadiums as ''private activity'' municipal bonds, and because the federal government limits the amount of such bonds any state may issue, legislators would have to weigh the demand for new sports facilities against the need to aid small business or subsidize first-time homeowners. Weiler writes lucidly and persuasively; rarely has the surface of professional sports been so revealingly pared away. - ---