Baseball Players Make Tax Offer to Owners

As the central component of a bargaining proposal made to negotiators for major league baseball owners on Wednesday, the players’ union has offered to put a 2.5% tax on all player salaries during the first three years of a six-year agreement to generate about $25 million a year that would be donated to the owners’ revenue-sharing fund.

According to sources close to the negotiations, the proposal calls for the salary tax to be followed by a two-year tax of 25% on payrolls above $50 million, with the tax increasing to 30% in the final year of the agreement if industry revenue reaches $2.7 billion, which is considered unlikely.

A management source said the payroll tax is not restrictive enough to inhibit salary growth and the tax on salaries is acceptable only if combined with a more restrictive payroll tax. However, the source said, “The union has at least kept the [payroll] tax on the table and there is a framework for agreement on revenue sharing. The union has also made progressive proposals on free agency and arbitration. We may not be that far apart in those areas.”

The 1996 season will be played under rules of an agreement that expired two years ago. Negotiators and players have now exchanged proposals for the first time in nearly a year. Management sources said they will counter the offer within two weeks.

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After 23 seasons, Dave Winfield, 44, said goodbye to major league baseball at a news conference in New York. He finished with a .283 career average and in the top 20 of many categories: 3,110 hits (14th), 1,833 RBIs (11th), 465 homers (19th), 11,003 at-bats (sixth) and 2,973 games (seventh).

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The Angels signed infielder Eduardo Perez and pitcher Ken Edenfield to one-year contracts. Perez, 27, hit .169 in 29 games last season. He hit .325 with the Angels’ triple-A team at Vancouver. Edenfield was 0-0 in seven games with the Angels last season. . . . Orel Hershiser will report for spring training with the Cleveland Indians next month, even though the pitcher auditioned for an analyst job with Fox. . . . Mexico won its first Caribbean Series in a decade Thursday when Mario Valdez singled home a run in the 10th inning to defeat Venezuela, 5-4, at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Golf

Kirk Triplett birdied seven consecutive holes on Torrey Pines’ North Course during his round of nine-under-par 63 to tie Doug Martin and Tom Lehman after the first round of the Buick Invitational at La Jolla.

Triplett’s run of birdies matched the best on the tour this year. Greg Norman also had seven in a row in the final round of the season-opening Mercedes Championships at Carlsbad.

Martin and Lehman each had seven birdies and an eagle playing on the easier North Course, which is 408 yards shorter than the South Course. Jeff Julian set a course and tournament record with an eight-under 28 on the back nine of the North Course, one stroke off the PGA Tour record for nine holes. He finished at 66.

Miscellany

A high school boys’ basketball game between Compton Dominguez and Downey ended with just over a minute left in the third quarter because of fighting between the teams. Dominguez was leading, 50-32, when the fight erupted and the gym was cleared. Downey police confirmed that there were no arrests and no injuries were reported. . . . Funeral services for former USC football and track star Kevin Williams will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ in San Fernando. Williams, a railroad brakeman, was killed last week in a train wreck in the Cajon Pass.

Mike Campbell’s 70-foot Victoria from Long Beach, upgraded to a turbo-sled with a deeper keel and taller mast, posted the fastest time in San Diego Yacht Club’s 939-mile race to Mazatlan, crawling across the finish line in only 3 knots of wind after 5 days 19 hours 57 minutes 11 seconds. . . . Mike Skinner, driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo formerly used by Winston Cup star Dale Earnhardt, won the pole position at Daytona International Speedway for Sunday’s ARCA 200 stock car race. . . . The U.S. 500 has attracted three more sponsors for the Indy car race that will be run May 26 opposite the Indianapolis 500. Pennzoil, Texaco and Indeck, an Illinois-based power equipment company, will pay $200,000 each to sponsor the race at Brooklyn, Mich., the Indianapolis Star reported.