Baseball's owners need to unite.

Baseball needs its own Jack Mara.

It was Mara, longtime co-owner of New York's football Giants, who in 1962, at a gathering of NFL owners, stood up and reminded several of his squabbling cohorts that their destiny was inexorably entwined. Pete Rozelle, the NFL's neophyte commissioner, was suggesting that several owners give up lucrative local television contracts so that the league could negotiate a national deal that they all would share equally.

As some owners from the league's larger cities complained that their share of the revenue would be drastically cut, gentlemanly Mara rose from his chair and explained that he was willing to sacrifice because it was best for the NFL's future. When Art Modell, who then owned the Cleveland Browns and already had lucrative television distribution, said the same, the NFL's course of unbridled sharing was set.

The challenge is for someone to step forward and become Jack Mara.

Let it be a goal for George Steinbrenner and his new YankeeNets partners. Let it be a challenge for Cleveland Indians outgoing owner Richard Jacobs and his successor, Larry Dolan. Let it be the legacy of baseball's corporate core: News …