Labor Agreement Officially Signed

Labor peace finally and officially returned to baseball Friday, four years, three months and seven days after owners reopened the old labor agreement.

Union head Donald Fehr and management negotiator Randy Levine signed the deal Friday, bringing an end to the most destructive of baseball’s eight work stoppages since 1972. A 232-day walkout wiped out the final 7 1/2 weeks of the 1994 season, including the World Series, and the first three weeks of 1995.

The deal runs through the 2000 season, and players have the option to extend it for an additional year.

As part of the agreement, the minimum salary for the 1996 season retroactively increases to $150,000 as of last July 31. Players who were earning the old minimum of $109,000 last season and were on the roster for the final two months of 1996 must be mailed checks of $13,666.67 by next Thursday.

Players, who walked out on Aug. 12, 1994, ended their strike the following March 31 when U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction forcing owners to maintain the work rules of the expired agreement.

As part of the agreement, the union has 60 days to ask the National Labor Relations Board to request that Sotomayor dismiss the case.

Owners approved the contract Nov. 26 and the union’s executive board followed suit Dec. 5. Lawyers then started drafting the actual agreement.

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St. Louis pitcher T.J. Mathews was suspended for six games and fined $2,000 by National League President Len Coleman for his role in a beaning incident with Cincinnati. After Eddie Taubensee tied Wednesday’s exhibition game with a single, Mathews threw one pitch behind Bret Boone, then hit Boone on the hip with a pitch. “I felt like hitting somebody, so I hit somebody,” Mathews said after the game. “They’re a pretty arrogant team. I don’t like that at all.” Mathews, 2-6 with six saves and a 3.01 ERA last season, declined comment on the suspension. Cardinal Brian Jordan was grazed by Scott Sullivan’s pitch in the sixth inning, and St. Louis’ Tom Pagnozzi was hit on the right wrist by a pitch from Mike Remlinger during the seventh. . . . J.T. Snow has made some progress in his recovery from being struck in the face by a fastball from Seattle’s Randy Johnson that left him with a broken left eye socket. “He says the swelling in his eye has gone down. He can open his eye about three-quarters. The doctor examined him again and a lot of the double vision has subsided,” San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker said. Snow is out indefinitely and probably will sit out the opener against Pittsburgh. . . . Oakland’s Mark McGwire has sat out the last two games because of back stiffness.