Major League Meetings Won’t Be in L.A.

The major league phase of baseball’s winter meetings, scheduled to begin in Los Angeles Dec. 3, is being moved--probably to Chicago and possibly to Dallas, a senior baseball official who requested anonymity said Wednesday.

It was not clear whether the meetings--known generally for producing a flurry of trade activity--will embrace all club personnel, as usual, or be confined to a one- or two-day meeting of owners.

The decision to leave Los Angeles stemmed from the inability of negotiators for the major and minor leagues to approve a new bargaining agreement by today’s deadline for releasing hotel rooms here and securing them elsewhere.

The major leagues have traditionally conducted their winter meetings in conjunction with the annual convention of the National Assn. of Professional Baseball Leagues, the official title of the minor leagues. Robert Sparks, a spokesman for the National Assn., said that the minor league convention will still be held in Los Angeles beginning Nov. 30, with a trade show starting Dec. 1.

Bill Murray, director of baseball operations under Commissioner Fay Vincent, said that the major leagues felt it would be awkward to meet jointly with the minor leagues if a new bargaining agreement--known as the Player Development Contract--wasn’t in place.

“From our standpoint,” Murray said, “the real deadline is Nov. 15, at which point we will need to consider the establishment of a contingency system for developing players that will meet the needs of the major league clubs. The hotel situation represented a deadline only in terms of the winter meetings.”