WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee may hold a hearing on baseball's antitrust exemption on Feb. 12 or 13, once again putting the spotlight on the sport's attempt to eliminate the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos.

A decision on a hearing date could come as early as Friday, David Carle, a spokesman for committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, said Thursday.

Legislation to apply antitrust laws to baseball franchise elimination and relocation was introduced in the House and Senate on Nov. 14, eight days after baseball owners voted to eliminate two teams before the 2002 season. The bill was proposed by Sen. Paul D. Wellstone, D-Minn., and Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Dec. 6, and baseball commissioner Bud Selig used it as a platform to claim teams were losing money and to rail against high player salaries. Following revelations that Selig arranged for a loan for his Milwaukee Brewers from an entity controlled by Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, Conyers called for another House hearing, but Judiciary Committee chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., refused.

Baseball's antitrust exemption was created by a 1922 Supreme Court decision. It was modified in 1998 by the Curt Flood Act, which said antitrust laws applied to labor relations for major league players.

Leahy intends to focus the hearing on the antitrust bill, not on baseball's claims of losses or the loans.