Two Sides in Baseball Squabble, Agree Only on Sharing a Meal

Negotiators for the baseball owners and striking players union broke bread together Tuesday night, but there was no indication yet it would lead to a break in the stalemated labor talks.

With neither side offering a new proposal and both saying there was no immediate reason for optimism, a scaled down group of union and club representatives met with special mediator William J. Usery for four hours Tuesday in acting commissioner Bud Selig’s hometown of Milwaukee. The sides agreed to meet again this morning in an effort to develop a format by which to resume the talks.

“Essentially, we were taking stock of where we are and beginning to discuss what we can do to find a way out of it,” union head Donald Fehr said before going to dinner with Selig, Colorado Rockie owner Jerry McMorris and Boston Red Sox chief executive officer John Harrington.

McMorris said the sides have a “window of opportunity” before the exhibition games start and is hopeful suggestions made by Usery on Feb. 7--rejected by the union and approved by the owners--could provide the framework for a settlement.

In other developments:

--Ron Cary, president of the Teamsters, said the union will not cross picket lines at regular season games in major league stadiums. The Teamsters deliver products to 23 of the 26 U.S. stadiums.

--The Maryland Senate finance committee voted 9-2 to bar replacement players from playing at Camden Yards this year, a show of support for Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who has said he will not field a replacement team. The full Senate is expected to take up the bill later this week.

--With major league umpires locked out by the owners in their own bargaining dispute, the American and National leagues will use high school and college umpires during the exhibition schedule.