Negotiations began in New York on baseball’s...

Negotiations began in New York on baseball’s new collective-bargaining agreement, only hours after Chuck O’Connor replaced Barry Rona as head of the owners’ negotiating team.

Rona, executive director and general counsel of the clubs’ Player Relations Committee since 1986, resigned Monday.

With O’Connor in charge as acting general counsel, management’s team met for two hours with officials of the Major League Baseball Players Assn. The current collective-bargaining contract, agreed to in August of 1985, expires at midnight Dec. 31.

O’Connor called the meeting “constructive.”