October 10, 1999

Gretchen Morgenson Market Watch column focuses on Mattel's problems with recently acquired Learning Co subsidiary; graph (M)

THE signs are unmistakable: Washington is rediscovering the health care crisis. It did not, after all, go away with the failure of the Clinton Administration's attempt at universal coverage in 1994. New Census data show the number of uninsured Americans is climbing, in the face of an extraordinary economic boom. The cost of health insurance, after a few years of stability, is rising as well. The House of Representatives spent last week in angry, anguished debate over the state of the nation's health care, then passed a sweeping new bill to rein in the managed care industry and protect patients' rights. And out on the Presidential campaign trail, candidates are beginning to offer their solutions -- with much political forethought -- to the increasingly apparent problems of access, cost and coverage.

GARY BAUER ordered a glass door for his office at his Presidential campaign headquarters here last week. Nothing wrong with the old wooden one -- except that two former aides have said they left because the candidate frequently closed it to meet one-on-one with his female deputy campaign chief. So, Mr. Bauer quipped, better a glass door than a glass ceiling.

The ball rose off Todd Pratt's bat with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning yesterday and carried with it the Mets' increasingly startling season. The team has endured a near fatal losing streak, a one-game playoff just to get to the playoffs, a meeting with Randy Johnson and a manager's remarkably ill-timed comments. And that was all within the last 10 days. But could the Mets endure the long wait for Pratt's ball to come down at the center-field wall, in a game tied at 3-3? ''When he hit it, I saw Steve Finley going back real slowly,'' Shawon Dunston said of the Diamondbacks' center fielder. ''He timed it. He's not a Gold Glover for nothing. When he came down calm, I thought he had it. Then he came down too calm, and I knew it was gone.''

They ambushed Roger Clemens here tonight, waves of attackers, one of them covering his face with shaving cream. He handed the offender his bottle of champagne. ''Here, pour this on my face, I can't see,'' Clemens said. This is what he envisioned when he came to the Yankees, pitching in a post-season vortex, his teammates depending on him, needing him. Then dousing him. Clemens shut out the Texas Rangers for seven innings tonight, his path eased by Darryl Strawberry's three-run home run in the first inning, and the Yankees stifled Texas again, 3-0, to complete a sweep of their three-of-five-game division series.