Dykstra Warns He Might Break Ranks : Baseball: Phillie says mediator’s proposals provide a basis for settlement.

Philadelphia Phillie center fielder Lenny Dykstra, who will lose $31,147 a day if the players remain on strike during the 1995 season, said Thursday he thinks there is the basis for a settlement in the recommendations proposed by the special mediator and rejected by the union and that he is attempting to organize a meeting of 20 premier players for next week to discuss the union’s strategy.

Appearing on ESPN’s “Up Close” with Chris Myers, Dykstra said owners deserve to make their profit, but he stopped short of saying he would cross the line if the union is still on strike when the season starts.

“Lenny Dykstra loves baseball, Lenny Dykstra is fortunate to be playing in the major leagues and Lenny Dykstra wants to play baseball in 1995,” he said. “As far as going across, you’ll have to ask me again in April.”

Dykstra would not identify the premier players but said “20 of us” were prepared to meet next week to “talk it out, let it all hang out” and go to New York, if necessary, to meet with union officials.

Referring to the settlement recommendations made by mediator William J. Usery Tuesday night and accepted by management, Dykstra said, “If you ask me, I think that Usery tried to do what’s best for both sides; he kind of, it looks like, cut everything in half. I think there’s a big chance we can get something done in his arena there with what he proposed.”

The recommendations included a payroll tax that the union compared to a salary cap and the loss of arbitration rights for second- and third-year players with nothing in return.

In a memo sent to agents Thursday, union leader Donald Fehr said the recommendations were terrible, “to put it mildly.”

Of Dykstra’s comments, Fehr said: “It sounds like something you would expect from someone who wasn’t in Washington during the negotiations and didn’t hear the entire package. It will be straightened out.

“So far, Lenny is the only player I’ve heard about (expressing this kind of dissent). If he has a bunch of players who are having a meeting next week, I think it’s a great idea. We’re having two big meetings (in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday and Phoenix on Friday) to update players and I hope he’s there.”

Dykstra made a later ESPN2 appearance with Jim Rome and said, “I support the union and I trust the union, but there’s so much at stake here, we’re taking a chance of ruining the greatest game in the world. That’s why I want to sit down with the union leaders and make sure we’re doing everything we can to get it resolved.”

Since the strike started Aug. 12, Dykstra and Houston Astro pitcher Greg Swindell are the only marquee players to indicate they might cross the line, if there is a line. The union has quieted Swindell and will talk to Dykstra, Fehr said, regarding his ESPN appearance.

Dykstra was asked by Myers about union solidarity during previous stoppages and said, “If it weren’t for the players before us, holding firm and staying together, I would never be making the money I am now, but at this point I think we are at the ceiling. . . . You’ve got guys making five and six million dollars, and the owners deserve to make a profit. They’ve invested millions of dollars in those teams, and I’m not afraid to say they’re the boss. We work for them. They deserve to make a profit in their own business.”

The owners will appreciate Dykstra’s support, but they took a subtle shot from Usery on Thursday. The mediator released a statement in which he said his Tuesday proposals were designed to spur bargaining and were not presented as a final recommendation to President Clinton or the two sides.

“I have learned in the last two days that a document is being distributed which purports to be my final recommendation,” Usery said. “It is not. I have never issued any such document.”

He referred to management’s distribution Tuesday night of a two-page document citing a) the highlights of the proposal under a heading that read “Bill Usery’s Solution” and b) a breakdown of what the players would get and what the owners would get under the heading “The Balanced Proposal.”

Management counsel Chuck O’Connor insisted Thursday that by the time the document was distributed to the media, union officials had already leaked most of the recommendations. In addition, O’Connor said, the clubs never portrayed the recommendations as a final proposal.

“There were areas in it that troubled us, but we said yes, as the framework of a settlement, we would accept it.”

Usery’s statement may have been designed to mollify the union--outraged at the mediator and his recommendations Tuesday night and insistent that it had been assured by Usery that they were only suggestions. “The statement confirms what we were saying and indicates the clubs had no business distributing what they did,” Fehr said.