Baseball Talks Go On, but So Does Stalemate

Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent participated in the resumption of collective bargaining talks Monday, but the meeting in the New York offices of the owners’ Player Relations Committee lasted only 45 minutes and, apparently, there was no change in management’s revenue-sharing proposal or the plan to lock players out of spring training camps starting Thursday.

Neither side would discuss the substance of the meeting, but Don Fehr, executive director of the Major League Players Assn., said logistical hurdles alone now preclude a Thursday opening and that the negotiations have represented “a colossal waste of time.”

“There’s not a lot to say,” Fehr said. “It’s my impression that the situation hasn’t changed at all. It’s my impression that we’re where we were yesterday and the day before and the day before that. The players are resigned to what they think is the inevitable.”

Charles O’Connor, general counsel of the PRC, sounded equally pessimistic.

“There’s no reason to believe this can be settled quickly, but I’m always optimistic when we’re talking, and we’ll be talking again tomorrow. The commissioner’s instinct made him feel that he wanted to be part of the process. He’s part of the process and he’ll be part of the solution. I would characterize his role as the same as mine, full-time.”

Both O’Connor and Fehr seemed reluctant to talk Monday and it is believed that Vincent asked them to reduce the rhetoric.

“We’re trying not to do any more damage to the patient,” O’Connor said.

Baseball’s owners had met Friday and reaffirmed their support of the PRC’s negotiating strategy, including a lockout beginning Thursday if the union did not agree to the concept of revenue sharing. Even so, there seemed to be a feeling that the PRC might be ready to withdraw some aspects of the proposal.

“I don’t know the basis for that,” Gene Orza, the union’s general counsel, said Monday. “I don’t know why people felt that way. The owners had said there would be no change in strategy, no change in plans. We couldn’t avoid a (Thursday) lockout now even with an act of Congress. The players have no reservations and the clubs haven’t sent any equipment.

“The question isn’t, ‘Will there be a lockout?’ The question is, ‘How long?’ We’re trying to determine just how much of an intrusion (the owners’) action has caused.”

Of Vincent’s presence, Orza said: “It can’t hurt, but don’t think of him as a third party. He’s an agent of management. Within ownership, he has a measure of moral suasion, but what actual and factual contribution he can make, considering none of us who have been at the table have produced any progress, is uncertain. These people are trying to re-invent the wheel at a time when the wheel has never run smoother.”

Major league players are not required to be in camp until Feb. 28. A lockout will prevent them from reporting voluntarily.

“It may not be a technical lockout, but it’s a lockout nevertheless,” said Fehr, alluding to Thursday’s closing.