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LOS ANGELES -- Three former Major League Baseball players who had short careers filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against Commissioner Bud Selig, the 30 teams and the league, claiming they were wrongfully denied pension and medical benefits and discriminated against because they were white.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court named Richard Moran, 64, a former starting shortstop for the New York Mets; Ernest "Ernie" Fazio, 61, the first player ever signed by the Houston Astros franchise and Mike Colbern, 48, a Santa Monica native who played two seasons for the Chicago White Sox in the late 1970s, as the three principle plaintiffs. More than 1,000 other players are proposed members of the class.

The lawsuit alleged that the vesting requirement for full comprehensive medical benefits for life and full pension benefits were changed after the 1981 eight-day players strike. The requirements were reduced from four years to one day of Major League Baseball service for medical benefits, and from four years to 43 days of service for full pension benefits.

The change excluded players who played before 1980, effecting the 1,053 members of the class-action lawsuit, who were not included retroactively, according to court documents.

A prior collective bargaining agreement reached in 1968 had set the vesting requirement for pension and medical benefits at five years of service.

The lawsuit also alleged battery, negligence, racial discrimination and conspiracy.

A telephone call made Thursday night to Selig during Game 7 of the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game was not immediately returned.

The battery and negligence allegations were related to allegations that Major League Baseball teams directed doctors and trainers to inject players with multiple cortisone shots to mask pain, without informing players of the danger. The injections led to harmful side effects from long term use and cut short many careers due to injuries that were sustained when players should have been resting their bodies, the lawsuit said.

"It is grossly unfair to think that a dollar amount equivalent to what some baseball superstars are paid for throwing a few pitches or taking an at bat is being denied to these oldtimers who lack basic health care coverage and pensions," said John R. DaCorsi, one of the attorneys bringing the lawsuit. "Many of these men face serious health concerns due to rampant steroid and other drug use at the hands of team doctors and trainers."

The class members include some notable players, despite their short careers. One is Pat Darcy, 53, the former Cincinnati Reds pitcher who gave up the home run to the Boston Red Sox's Carlton Fisk in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series -- arguably one of the most famous home runs in World Series history.

Another is Dave Stenhouse, the American League's starting pitcher in the 1962 All-Star Game, whose career was cut short after suffering a torn rotator cuff.

The racial discrimination allegation stems from Major League Baseball's 1997 decision to grant a $10,000 annual pension to some former black baseball players who played in the Negro League and for MLB teams, even though they never vested under the former requirements.

The lawsuit said that baseball's racist climate from the 1940s to 1960s led to an unwritten quota of two black players per team. For example, the San Francisco Giants for many years only had two black players, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, who are both Hall of Famers, the lawsuit said.

Nearly all of the 1,053 class-action members are white and should be awarded the same benefits as their counterparts in the Negro League, the lawsuit said.

The conspiracy allegation centered on the lawsuit's claim that team owners conspired to fund the pension and medical benefits for the former Negro League players knowing that white players who had played similar lengths had not received those benefits.

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press