Today, Play Stalled Replaces Play Ball : Talks: Players reject Vincent’s three-part proposal, but there is some optimism because revenue sharing seems to be off the table.

A lockout of the spring training camps by baseball’s owners begins today--amid what seems to be dashed hopes of a breakthrough in collective bargaining talks.

Appearances, however, are not always what they seem.

Though the Major League Players Assn. said Wednesday that a series of proposals by Commissioner Fay Vincent represented a step backward, the union also acknowledged that the proposals put them in the same ballpark with the owners’ Player Relations Committee in that revenue sharing has been removed as the key issue.

In other words, Fehr said, when the union and PRC resume “full-blown” negotiations today, they will be talking about the system as it is rather than the creation of a new one.

And in that regard, several sources speculated Wednesday, the owners still seem headed for inevitable acceptance of the status quo--perhaps as early as Feb. 28, the mandatory date for players reporting to training camps.

Alluding to arbitration and salary restrictions in the Vincent proposals, Don Fehr, the union’s executive director, said it was doubtful that the proposals would provide the basis for an agreement but that “we’re better than before because we’re not talking about the radical changes in the revenue-sharing concept.”

“We’re no longer talking about re-inventing the wheel,” Fehr said. “As Gene Orza (the union’s general counsel) says, we’re in the same ocean now.”

Orza also labeled the overall nature of the proposals as regressive in that the union first rejected the concept of a salary cap for younger players during the 1981 labor negotiations and first rejected a cap on arbitration in the 1985 talks.

Vincent presented the propositions during meetings Monday and Tuesday. The union, on the basis that revenue sharing was no longer the central component, summoned its 17-player bargaining team to New York Wednesday. Six players were able to make it, including Dodger player representative Tim Belcher.

Fehr said the proposal came in three parts:

--A system of minimum salaries for players with less than three years in the major leagues and a cap that would limit salary arbitration increases to 75%.

--A two-year study of revenue sharing by a joint committee and a provision that the four-year labor agreement could be reopened by management after two years.

--No increase in the benefit plan covering health and player pensions.

Under the Vincent plan, which replaced revenue sharing and its accompanying pay-for-performance system with the caps on salaries and arbitration, players with less than one year in the majors would have a $75,000 minimum salary, players with less than two years a $125,000 minimum, and players with less than three years a $200,000 minimum.

Fehr said he feared that the minimums would become the standard wage for all players in each of those categories. Thus, he said, when tied to the 75% cap on arbitration raises, three-year players would have a salary limit of $350,000, four-year players a $612,500 limit and five-year players a limit of $1,071,875.

Asked if we would accept a joint study of revenue sharing, which some believe will be the means to a general agreement on the status quo, Fehr said: “If done right, it’s not something we would reject out of hand.”

Fehr has questioned the intentions of the owners’ bargaining approach and said he would consider legal action in the event of a lockout. He said Wednesday a decision had not been reached on that possibility.

The lockout stems from the owners’ desire to have an agreement on revenue sharing by the opening of camps. Revenue sharing now appears to be off the table, but Charles O’Connor, general counsel of the PRC, said a bargaining agreement was still needed before camps could open because of unpredictable labor history on both sides. O’Connor’s tone suggested he was not happy about the union’s decision to go public with the details of Vincent’s proposals, but he chose not to inflame the rhetoric.

In the meantime, baseball’s sixth work stoppage in the last 18 years is now a reality, the start of spring training having been delayed for the first time since 1976, when then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn ended a lockout by ordering the camps to be opened March 17.

Pitchers, catchers and other invited players were scheduled to report to 11 training bases today.

The Dodgers will open camp Friday with 67 minor leaguers, including nine with major league experience.

The Angels had been scheduled to begin battery workouts in Mesa, Ariz., Saturday. Several pitchers threw for the last time at Anaheim Stadium Wednesday and indicated they may now move to Villa Park High School.

Fehr said Wednesday that, with revenue sharing apparently off the table, he was hopeful the players could present some of their own proposals for the first time, including increases in minimum salary, roster size and pension contribution by the owners.

Voicing skepticism when asked about the possibility of progress, Fehr alluded to Orza’s comment regarding both sides now being in the same ocean at least and said, “Yes, but we could all still drown.”