Meanwhile, Frank Robinson, the manager of the Orioles, said he was upset over the incident and suggested that female reporters and his players discuss the problems to ''clear the air.''

It has been a two-decades-long battle for female reporters to have access to locker rooms to seek the stories their male counterparts get. There have been court proceedings and closed-door meetings, and there has been substantial progress, with women showing proper discretion and most players wearing towels or robes when women are around.

Some loutish behavior by ballplayers continued, though, as when, a few years ago, Dave Kingman of the Oakland A's sent to a female reporter in the press box a neatly wrapped package, tied in pink ribbon, with a live rat inside. Over all, however, women have gained their rightful acceptance in being allowed to enter a legitimate workplace. About 15 years ago, I saw my first female sportswriter in a locker room. It was Jane Gross, then with Newsday (and later a reporter for The New York Times), and the daughter of Milton Gross, the late, distinguished sports columnist for The New York Post.

''I'm not a cause person,'' Gross told me, ''I don't carry signs. I don't like to go places where I'm not welcome. But I began to realize what a fellow sportswriter on Newsday had told me - that you really can't get the flavor of the players without seeing them in the locker room and the camaraderie they share. It's a beautiful thing. Most women rarely experience it.'' But, she added, the locker room ''is no place to be a voyeur. It's sweaty and I'm on deadline.''

One New York radio sportscaster, seeing Gross in the locker room for the first time, compared it to the fall of the Roman Empire. ''The first symptoms of moral decay were carnal promiscuity and sexual lassitude,'' he said.