Baseball Conduct Meetings Near

Acting Commissioner Bud Selig and other baseball executives will meet with officials of the players’ and umpires’ unions in West Palm Beach, Fla., today in what is being called a code-of-conduct summit, stemming from the September incident during which Roberto Alomar spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck.

Selig acknowledged Monday that any definitive changes in the rules governing the relationship between players and umpires and the disciplinary process would require revisions in the collective bargaining agreements with the two unions, a difficult process.

He added, however, that there are “obvious tensions and problems” that need to be addressed.

“I’m hopeful that a candid and long overdue discussion will ultimately lead to solutions,” he said. “[The meeting] is a start. We will need more meetings.”

However, Richie Phillips, the umpires’ counsel, said he would demand today that the disciplinary process be streamlined and that players suspended for physical confrontations with umpires be made to serve their suspensions, rather than be given automatic stays while appealing. Phillips said it is time the owners take on the players’ association, rather than the umpires.

“That is something the league presidents agreed to last year at the beginning of the World Series,” he said of the change in procedure. “We are going to demand that they reiterate their support for that proposition.”

Said National League president Leonard Coleman, “What was agreed upon was that physical acts upon umpires will not be tolerated. Discipline will be handled on a case-by-case basis. The policies and the procedures are what is on the table for discussion in the summit.”