Baseball Owners Hit Hard : Collusion: 2nd ruling puts tab at $102.5 million. Total payout to players could be $300 million.

Baseball owners were ordered Monday to pay players $102.5 million as compensation for damages caused during the 1987 and 1988 seasons, when the teams conspired to sign few or no free agents.

Arbitrator George Nicolau issued the decision after 3 1/2 years of hearings, but did not detail how much money would go to each player, ruling only on the total amount of damages. Further hearings will decide how the money is divided.

The latest ruling joins the $10.5 million awarded to players last year for the 1986 season by arbitrator Thomas Roberts, who heard the first of the three collusion cases. The total of approximately $113 million comes to about $4.4 million per team, and that does not include interest, which will total tens of millions of dollars.

Chuck O’Connor, head of management’s Player Relations Committee, said the union had asked for approximately $130 million for 1987 and 1988 and that owners had proposed damages of about $85 million.

Nicolau, who heard the second two cases, did not wish to comment on his ruling. He gave copies to the union and the PRC, and union head Donald Fehr said he would release the text of the decision Tuesday, when he will hold a news conference.

“There will be much more to come when the remaining damages are determined, including lost salary for 1989 and 1990, and other damages,” Fehr said. “Protest as they will, the owners can no longer downplay either the significance or the effect of their intentionally wrongful conduct.”

Fehr said hearings would begin next week in Chicago on additional damages, such as compensation for loss of mobility. He said additional damages could be substantial. O’Connor termed these “issues of a relatively minor nature.”

The two arbitrators found owners guilty of suppressing salaries through a boycott of free agents after the 1985, 1986 and 1987 seasons. Although teams once again started signing free agents freely after the 1988 season, the union claims that damages are continuing because salaries are lower than they would have been without the boycott.

Clubs already have placed $10.5 million in escrow to cover the Roberts decision. O’Connor said $102.5 million would be added to the account by the end of the year and said the clubs still had approximately $100 million left from television money they had saved in their lockout fund last winter.

“While we disagree with the amount of damages awarded, it is important to remember that the events in question began more than five years ago,” O’Connor said. “It is undoubtedly the case that the origins of this dispute are in part related to the clubs’ efforts to grapple with the serious economic issues facing the game.”

Tom Reich, an agent who represents Jack Clark, said he thought teams would be required to pay $10 million each by the time the litigation is finished.

“It will probably be in the neighborhood of $300 million, including all of the damages and interest.” Reich said. “That in my mind is not much more than half of what I felt the actual damages to players were.”

Richard Moss, an agent who represents players Andre Dawson and Jack Morris, both collusion victims, complained of the time it is taking for players to get the damages.

“So far, the only people who have seen any money are the lawyers and the arbitrators,” he said.