Baseball Heads on a Path to Nowhere : Labor: As owners’ deadline approaches, not even an offer of help from former President Carter appears likely to keep talks from breaking down.

Just hours before the midnight deadline owners set for either a deal or imposing a salary cap, players made a new proposal today and former President Carter offered to get involved if talks break down.

“We’ve been working on something the last several days,” union head Donald Fehr said at 2 p.m., about 30 minutes after bargaining resumed. “We did present a modified proposal to the owners a few minutes ago. They’re looking at it and will get back to us.”

Owners say that unless there’s a deal by 12:01 a.m. Friday, they will impose a salary cap. Carter issued a statement from the Carter Center in Atlanta saying he would be available to mediate if the current talks fail and both sides ask him to get involved.

“The policy of the Carter Center is that our mediation services are available only when both parties genuinely want a settlement and desire us to be of assistance,” the statement said. “We realize there is a superb mediator providing his services and we have full confidence that maximum efforts are already being made.

“We at the Carter Center would be willing to assist only is the present attempt to reach an agreement between the players and the owners is likely to be abandoned.”

Paul Kaplan, a Carter spokesman in Atlanta, wouldn’t say if either party has asked for the former president’s assistance.

Today’s meeting was the first formal bargaining session in eight days, since talks broke off at Rye Brook, N.Y.

“We think it addresses their concerns,” Kansas City Royals pitcher David Cone said. “We feel like we’ve made another extended reach. It’s a significant proposal.”

Players and owners disagree on the major issues of a payroll tax and revenue sharing. Mediator W.J. Usery spent Tuesday and Wednesday morning shuttling between the sides.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep it going,” he said late Wednesday, “but it’s tough.”

On Wednesday night, owners criticized players for not making another proposal. Team officials say that the union had promised to offer a plan for a secondary payroll tax that would discourage salary escalation.

“Hopefully they are still working on something to give us on the issue that concerns us,” Atlanta Braves president Stan Kasten said Wednesday night. “We did not get that Monday. We did not get that Tuesday. We have not gotten that today.”

Eugene Orza, the union’s No. 2 official, said Wednesday he thought the owners’ attempt to impose a cap was “inevitable.”

Owners threatened to do just that when they met last Thursday in Chicago, but instead voted 25-3 to give the ruling executive council the authority to impose one if there wasn’t a deal by Thursday.

“There was ... an absence of drama. Just a lot of posturing,” said Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Paul Molitor, who left Wednesday evening. “It’s kind of ironic. They extend the deadline a week and take three days to get here.”

Several management sources said they are willing to compromise on the level of a payroll tax.

But before addressing that issue, Fehr wants owners to rework the revenue-sharing agreement they came up with at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last Jan. 18. The union’s economists think the subsidies that deal would produce for small-market franchises would decrease teams’ incentives to win and lower salaries.

“It’s difficult because they say Fort Lauderdale is sacrosanct,” Fehr said.

It took owners a year to reach the revenue-sharing agreement, and management is reluctant to revisit the way teams will split their money.

“They told us it’s complicated and it’s tied to Fort Lauderdale and revenue sharing,” Philadelphia Phillies co-general partner Dave Montgomery said. “We say make whatever assumptions you want on revenue sharing and make us a proposal on a secondary tax.”

In New York on Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board accused baseball owners of unfair labor practices and set a March 14 hearing before an administrative law judge.

The NLRB made what was tantamount to an indictment, charging the owners illegally failed to make a $7.8 million contribution on Aug. 1 to the players’ health and benefit plan. Four days before the payment was due, the union set an Aug. 12 strike date.

The seven-page complaint said owners failed to make the payment “because the union announced its intention to strike.” It also said owners have been “failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith with the union,” which is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.

On the congressional front, Newt Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who will become House speaker next month, met Monday with players Brett Butler, Tom Glavine and Terry Pendleton. ESPN said Gingrich would urge removal of the owners’ antitrust exemption, even if the strike is settled.

“They were encouraged as a result of the meeting,” Fehr said of the players, refusing to specify what commitments Gingrich made.

“At this time, I don’t think Newt is going to do anything,” Gingrich aide Allan Lipsett told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. “He may do something in the future.”