Major league players and owners prepared for...

Major league players and owners prepared for an arbitrator’s ruling today on charges of free-agent collusion that some have called the most important since baseball free agency began in 1975.

Arbitrator Tom Roberts flew from his Los Angeles-area office to New York, where he will deliver his ruling to representatives of the owners and players. Roberts’ ruling will come after hearing 32 days of testimony and poring through 5,682 pages of transcript and 288 exhibits in an action brought by the Major League Players Assn. against the owners.

The players say owners conspired to restrict the movement of free-agent players in violation of their collective bargaining agreement. Owners say they were exercising “fiscal responsibility.”