Baseball Pact Reached; Season to Start April 9 : Major leagues: Owners and players agree to a 4-year contract which ends a 32-day spring training lockout.

The second-longest work stoppage in baseball history ended Sunday night in New York when players and owners agreed to a four-year contract that brought a 32-day spring training lockout to a close.

Commissioner Fay Vincent said that opening day of the regular season would be postponed to April 9, giving players nearly three weeks of spring training.

American League President Bobby Brown said that players were due in training camp on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Greenberg said that the clubs would play at least 158 games of the scheduled 162-game season, and that “we are hopeful of getting the full 162. We are working with the players association in an attempt to do that, using open dates of the schedule.”

The agreement came after 362 of 410 exhibition games had been canceled, with a devastating effect on local economies in Florida and Arizona. It has been estimated that the shortened spring training will cost Florida $300 million and Arizona up to $100 million.

The new contract replaces an agreement which expired on Dec. 31. It provides for a minimum salary of $100,000 per season and for owners to contribute $55 million yearly to the players’ pension plan.

Throughout negotiations, the key issue of dispute involved the option of salary arbitration for players with more than two but less than three years of major league service. The Major League Baseball Players Assn. was adamant about a return to the two-year requirement it gave up in negotiations in 1985.

The owners, represented by the Player Relations Committee, were just as adamant that the three-year requirement be retained.

The new agreement offers arbitration to 17% of those players with more than two and less than three years of league service. Using this year’s service class as an example, 14 of 83 players with between two and three years would be eligible.

The arbitration compromise apparently was the catalyst to bringing negotiations, which began on Nov. 28, to an end Sunday in their 34th session.

The two sides met Sunday morning in Vincent’s office, and the union received the owners’ proposal for arbitration compromise. After a 90-minute meeting, they broke for lunch, and then went back into negotiations that went late into the night.

“On behalf of the clubs, we apologize to the fans for their inconvenience,” Vincent said.

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