Clinton to Baseball: Keep Talking : Labor: President orders negotiators back to the bargaining table for one more day.

President Clinton refused to take no for an answer Sunday when baseball’s negotiators said they couldn’t agree on a deal, ordering the sides back to the bargaining table for one more day of talks.

Five hours after mediator W.J. Usery announced the sides were too far apart to hope for a settlement, Clinton demanded players and owners try again.

Usery met with Clinton in the Oval Office for 45 minutes and reported that four days of talks had been futile. Usery then returned to the negotiations and said the president wanted another report by 2 p.m. PST today--the 100th anniversary of Babe Ruth’s birth.

“It’s not at all clear that we can get them to settle,” Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry said, “but we are hopeful.”

While the president could propose special legislation to Congress, White House aides said he wants the sides to work it out themselves.

Players and owners have made little progress since the strike started Aug. 12, and are still billions of dollars apart.

“Obviously, it’s a big order to accomplish,” Usery said. “I know we must try to do the job.”

Labor Secretary Robert Reich attended the White House meeting and stood at Usery’s side during a news conference, dramatizing Clinton’s message.

“He emphasized the urgency of bringing this problem to a rapid settlement,” Reich said. “He wants to make sure there is a 1995 season, to make sure there is spring training.”

Workouts are scheduled to start a week from Thursday, and administration officials have said they are against the owners’ plan to use strikebreakers. The regular season starts April 2.

“Time is running out on us,” said Usery, who was appointed special mediator by Clinton last Oct. 14. “We all know the effect this is having on our nation. It’s absolutely essential we try to get baseball playing again.”

Players and owners thought they could be asked to negotiate through the night.

“We take it with the greatest seriousness,” said Atlanta Braves president Stan Kasten, a member of management’s negotiating committee. “When the president of the United States and the secretary of labor intercede, that’s not an everyday occurrence.”

Owners want a new economic system that will control players’ salaries, which averaged nearly $1.2 million in 1994. The union, intent on preserving its gains of the past two decades, walked out to fight off the owners’ demand to cap costs.

If he is forced to propose a settlement, Usery said he would give the terms to the president before divulging them to both sides. Usery would urge players and owners to accept, but if they don’t, the next move would be up to Clinton.

“We can’t make any judgment at all about any recommendations that could be made until we see them,” union head Donald Fehr said.

If the president proposes to settle the strike with legislation, it would have to be approved by the House and Senate.

“I think they’d better pay attention to this president,” Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch told CNN. “I think he means business. I’m going to support him on it.

“And if we have to, if they’re not going to get it done, then we’re going to have to see if we can do it through Congress,” the Utah Republican said.

Acting commissioner Bud Selig, who has attended just one bargaining session during his 2 1/2-year tenure, was to arrive in Washington today.

It was Selig, the Milwaukee Brewers’ owner, who last Sept. 14 announced the cancellation of the World Series.

Usery, a labor secretary in the Ford administration, cajoled owners into withdrawing their salary cap demand last week, but teams still are insisting on a luxury tax that will place a drag on salary growth.

The union will not accept a significant payroll tax, leaving the sides bitterly divided on the 178th day of the strike, the eighth work stoppage in the major leagues since 1972. The walkout wiped out the World Series for the first time since 1904.

The day after talks broke off Dec. 22, owners imposed their salary cap plan. On Jan. 26, Clinton ordered talks to resume.

Owners made their new proposal Wednesday, asking for a 75 percent tax on the amount of payrolls between $35 million and $42 million, and a 100% tax on the amount above that.

On Friday, owners withdrew their salary cap after the National Labor Relations Board said it was prepared to issue an unfair labor practice charge that the system was illegally imposed. That led to speculation that progress might follow.

Instead, the sides turned snippy Saturday.