STRIKE THREATENS ALUMNI NIGHT

If major league baseball players take to the picket lines Aug. 12 as they have promised, their action no doubt will yield numerous negative effects ranging from lost income to possible elimination of a post-season World Series this year.

The cancellation of Southeast Missouri State University Alumni Night at Busch Stadium, however, is one circumstance that probably neither labor nor management has considered.

The annual trip to a St. Louis Cardinals game is scheduled for Aug. 13 -- just a day after the players have said they will walk out.

"I'm very nervous at this point," said Jane Stacy, director of Alumni Services at Southeast. "I talked to the St. Louis Cardinals office and it doesn't look good."

A late-season players' strike in the past would not have affected Southeast's Alumni Night because the event previously has been held in May on Memorial Day weekend. The date was changed this year since people often have other plans on Memorial Day weekend.

An average of 600 people attend Alumni Night annually. Only about 100 tickets have been sold thus far, but Stacy said most people sign up during the two weeks before the game.

The alumni council will decide at its meeting Monday whether plans for the game will be dropped.

"We will be extremely disappointed if it we have to cancel," said Mark Hill, president of the National Alumni Council at Southeast. "It's a good time to bring together alumni that live in St. Louis.

"It will hurt our efforts at the university if we have to call it off."