Neither Side Holds Much Hope for Ueberroth’s Plan

Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, after getting somewhat hostile reactions from both sides to his proposals designed to avert a players’ strike called for Tuesday, persisted Friday night in urging compromise solutions.

Ueberroth reportedly met with the owners’ negotiating council and players’ union leaders.

An official in the commissioner’s office said that Ueberroth was prepared to offer other proposals in addition to the several he sent to both sides Friday morning. Most of the proposals have not been revealed.

Among the proposals Ueberroth was passing on were some suggested to him by active players, according to the official.

Late Friday night, a source close to the negotiations reported that Ueberroth was privately expressing displeasure with both sides, accusing both of not having the overall interests of baseball at heart.

Meanwhile, a formal negotiating session, the first since Wednesday, is scheduled to be held this afternoon in a law office in midtown Manhattan.

Both sides huddled in strategy sessions Friday night after a day marked by telephone communications between them, and statements by both were critical of some of what Ueberroth had to say in a New York news conference Thursday.

In a written statement, Lee MacPhail, chief negotiator for the owners, while expressing appreciation for Ueberroth’s desire to avoid a strike, said he felt compelled to “express sharp disagreement” with some of Ueberroth’s statements.

This was the first time that MacPhail had publicly criticized Ueberroth’s position since Ueberroth was elected commissioner by the owners last year. In recent days, Ueberroth has appeared to lean toward the union’s position in the contract talks, in particular opposing the owners’ plea for a salary cap. There have also been reports of strains between Ueberroth and MacPhail.

First, MacPhail said, the owners differ with the commissioner’s suggestion that they might put $45 million of their national television revenues in escrow until they reach a settlement with the players on the amount of their annual pension contribution. The players are asking $60 million a year for the pensions in the new contract. The owners are paying $15.5 million a year under the contract that expired last Dec. 31.

MacPhail said that the $45 million has not even been received by the clubs, and in any event it has already been committed for club operating expenses, “primarily for major league player salaries.”

Second, MacPhail took exception to Ueberroth’s public call for the owners to stop asking the players to solve the clubs’ financial problems.

That comment, he said, “misstates the objective of the club proposals.

“We’re not asking the players to solve club economic problems,” MacPhail said. “We are simply asking them to join with us in constructing a proper system to control costs and share revenues on an equitable basis.

“Effective action may only be taken by joint agreement with the players,” he added. “It is our responsibility to the clubs, the game, the public--and the players--to take action now that will retard the runaway escalation of player costs.

“This requires that all player compensation, salaries and benefits to be considered together, and requires cooperative action with the players. We are only endeavoring to negotiate financial matters with our employees in the same manner as any American business or industry.”

MacPhail’s statement ended by saying that some of Ueberroth’s other suggestions seem “more constructive and hopefully will provide the basis for discussions with the union.” He did not say what they were.

At the union offices two blocks away, union leader Donald Fehr said that although “there are some things there” in the secret proposals he received from Ueberroth, there is nothing “that suggests a way out of the present morass.” Ueberroth’s ideas have been discussed in baseball circles before and “are certainly not novel,” he said.

Dick Moss, a player’s agent from Los Angeles who is involved in the negotiations on the union’s side, was decidedly more negative than Fehr. He said that Ueberroth’s suggestions constituted “atrocious management proposals” and contained “no significant breakthroughs.”

Fehr said: “I don’t know where the hell we are. If the owners continue to hold to their position that the players must help them with their finances, nothing can be done, and tomorrow we are one day closer to the strike.”