Younger Ballplayers Just Want to Go to Training Camp : Survey: Most older players favor union stance, but young players understand arbitration eligibility means little if you don’t make a major league club.

And you think you’re confused by baseball’s labor talks? On Saturday morning, Dodger catcher Rick Dempsey left for spring training.

“Heck, I figured the lockout would be over with,” Dempsey said sheepishly from a hotel room in St. Petersburg, Fla., Saturday night after a flight from Los Angeles. “I figured I would come down here, watch my son play for one day while the league got everything settled and then--boom--I’m in Vero Beach. I was confident that by the time I got here tonight, it would be done.”

Dempsey said he still held those notions when he walked into the hotel lobby and was greeted by his son John, a St. Louis minor league catcher.

“First thing he said was, ‘Dad, it’s not over with yet,’ ” Dempsey said. “I said, ‘Well, I guess I could be here for a while.’ For the life of me, I don’t know why this thing ain’t done yet.”

His confusion is shared. An informal survey of the Southland’s three major league teams concerning Saturday’s attempt at settling the 31-day owners’ lockout revealed a group of unsettled players.

Some are in favor of the owners’ proposal and desperately want to begin spring training. Others are opposed to the proposal and vow to continue the fight. But many, such as Dodger reliever Tim Crews, are both.

“Here’s how it is,” Crews said. “If the union committee called me and said they would like to stay locked out over this proposal, I would say fine. If they called and said they wanted to sign the proposal, I would say fine. I’ll do whatever the union guys want to do.”

Said third baseman Jeff Hamilton: “I didn’t see what was happening. I spent the day fishing. But sooner or later, somebody is going to have to swallow some pride, aren’t they? I just don’t know who.”

Judging from the survey, reaction to the fight over arbitration eligibility has taken an ironic twist. Many younger players who are most affected by the arbitration issue want to give up the union’s demand for two years’ service eligibility and settle immediately. Many veterans who have already benefited from the owners’ three-year arbitration plan want to continue holding out until the owners change that plan.

This from a young player, Dodger pitcher Mike Hartley: “I thought the owners put a pretty good proposal out there. And if arbitration is the only thing holding anybody back . . . I’ve never had the chance go to arbitration, but that’s not what I’m looking for right now. I’m just looking to make the team. And some of the younger guys are feeling the same way I am.”

Said Jack Clark, San Diego Padre first baseman: “It makes me sick to hear what the greasy old owners are saying anymore . . . the owners don’t give a damn. The owners want everyone to think that we’re going to run home to our moms or something. Well, we’ll just wait and see who’s crying.”

Tony Gwynn, Padre outfielder, says he can understand and explain both sides.

“I’m sure the younger players are having the most trouble with it right now--they see they’re not going to be paid, and that’s a problem,” he said. “I’m sure the union is trying to get to these players and telling them to hang in there. But it’s easy to get worried, to panic. You start thinking, ‘Maybe we should give up.’ ”

Gwynn added, “The younger players have to realize, though, that the veteran guys are going out on a limb for them. People went out on a limb for us, and guys now want to go out on a limb for the young guys.”

Clark stated it another way. “There’s a lot of guys who have been handed everything on silver platters while the rest of us have had to scratch and claw for everything we’ve gotten,” he said. “We know what it’s all about, and we’re not going to give in.”

If the voices of players such as Clark and Gwynn seem loudest, some players with differing opinions say that is by design. The union, they say, has warned them against speaking out against solidarity.

“I just want to got to camp right now. We’ve gotten a lot of stuff (from the owners) already,” said one young Padre not yet eligible for arbitration. “But I can’t say anything publicly about it because guys have warned us to keep our mouths shut.”

When contacted Saturday, usually effusive Dodger Ray Searage was cautious. “Before I comment, I would have to check with the union first,” he said. “To give you an answer without knowing facts would not be fair right now. I don’t want to say anything that would jeopardize anything.”

Jim Gott, Dodger veteran pitcher, said that the union was concerned about misinformation.

“I really think that when players were going back and forth in the beginning of this thing, a lot of them just didn’t understand the issues,” Gott said. “Now that a lot of guys are informed, there (are) more people standing by the union. I definitely stand by the union. I think (union director) Donald Fehr has let us know that it’s not his fight, it’s our fight.”

Even veteran teammates disagree. Angel pitcher Bert Blyleven wants to settle. His catcher, Lance Parrish, does not.

“Going into the negotiations, there was a general feeling that if all the other issues were updated, arbitration should not be the deciding issue,” Blyleven said. “But it has become that.”

Said Parrish: “It’s an easy thing for me, being a veteran and past that (arbitration) period, to say, ‘Yeah, let’s settle.’ But this is an issue that, once its decided upon, it’s possibly going to set a precedent for who knows how long.”

But even Parrish said he realizes the difficulty in taking either side.

“I believe in (arbitration),” he said. “Is it worth continuing the lockout over? That’s a very difficult question to answer.”

Times staff writers Helene Elliott and Bob Nightengale contributed to this story.