Some Optimism Surfaces From Intense Baseball Talks

A frantic round of shuttle diplomacy led to a sense of cautious optimism here late Wednesday night as negotiations to avert a strike by major league baseball players entered their final 24 hours.

The players say they will strike Friday--before any games are played--unless there is a labor agreement.

Talks were held all day and into the night. There was an optimistic sense among people close to the collective-bargaining process that negotiators for the club owners and Major League Players Assn. had significantly narrowed their differences but remained separated on the issue of payroll tax.

Commissioner Bud Selig arrived from Milwaukee and lawyers joked that they needed hiking boots as they frequently walked the four blocks between the Manhattan offices of the players union and major league baseball. Proposals and contract language on the key issues of the tax and revenue sharing were exchanged.

Said one lawyer with ties to the union, weighing the possibility of a bargaining agreement before games are canceled Friday, “It looks good, but Yogi was right. It’s not over until it’s over.”

Union staffers briefed the 30 player representatives, and some optimistic remarks emerged there also.

“We were definitely left with the impression that a deal can get done. The tone was very positive,” said one player, who asked not to be identified.

Characteristic of the fluid situation, however, is that a union lawyer cautioned late Wednesday that the players may have been taking their optimism more from what they were hearing from their respective clubs than from what they heard during the union conference call.

On another front, baseball showed signs of grinding to a halt.

Several of the teams scheduled to play weekend games on the road were revising travel plans, opting because of the uncertainty to wait until Friday morning rather than flying tonight.

The Dodgers, scheduled to play the first game of a road series at Houston on Friday, will depart from Burbank Airport at 1 p.m. today, though they may be flying to final destinations unknown.

Dodger Vice President Derrick Hall said, “With our charter, we plan on leaving Houston Sunday night as scheduled.” But whether the team goes to Phoenix, to face the Arizona Diamondbacks, or elsewhere, “we are flexible in our plans.”

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said he would roam the plane during the flight today and talk to his players.

The Angels were not scheduled to travel again until they finish a weekend series at Anaheim with the Baltimore Orioles.

In New York, the talks that shuttled back and forth between the headquarters of the two factions went on long past midnight.

Robert DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, was among those striking an optimistic tone. He told reporters during a mid-evening stroll to the union offices that “every time we’ve had a discussion I would characterize it as getting closer. We won’t quit. Our goal is to get a deal without one minute of a work stoppage. I’m optimistic we can do it [today].”

If that is achieved, it would be a baseball first. All eight of the previous labor negotiations have ended in either a strike by the players or lockout by the owners.

In these negotiations, the players insist they are simply trying to maintain a system that has seen their average salary rise to $2.4 million.

They are threatening to strike because of concern that the combination of a restrictive tax on the payrolls of high-revenue clubs that drive the salary market and increased revenue sharing, putting another burden on those same clubs, serves as a dual hit and is tantamount to a salary cap, unacceptable to the union.

They are also concerned that, barring a settlement, owners will impose a contract lockout when the season ends and attempt to unilaterally implement new work rules after declaring an impasse in the talks.

The owners, claiming debt of $4 billion and 2001 operating losses of more than $500 million, are insistent that the structure has to change, that they have to attain a measure of control over payroll and salary growth while improving the competitive and revenue disparities.

Selig, who has ultimate authority over the labor process from the owners’ standpoint and had been monitoring talks from his Milwaukee office, arrived late Wednesday afternoon. He was spotted by a fan as he walked from his car to the baseball offices, the fan yelling: “Get a deal done. You’re making me miserable.”

Selig made his way through a group of reporters, saying he was “here only to help keep the talks going” and that “I’m hopeful we can have a constructive 24 to 36 hours.”

He re-emerged shortly before midnight and seemed to contribute more to the positive tone as he returned to his car, saying, “We’ve just had a long night, and they’re still upstairs working hard at it. There are a lot of issues still to be decided. I can’t say we’re closer, but both sides are reaching out. Generally, these things go down to the last second. Hopefully, we can get something done before then. We need a settlement.”

Selig had said Tuesday that the sides needed to reach that settlement by midnight tonight or they would be on “dangerous ground” regarding Friday’s games. He seemed to amend that Wednesday, suggesting there would be time to continue the negotiations Friday morning.

“We need to stretch it as far as we can,” he said.

It was uncertain whether Selig participated in any of the talks with union lawyers Michael Weiner and Steve Fehr, the brother of union leader Don Fehr, or talked at any time with the latter, but sources have said that the union believed it important that Selig be present.

That thought prompted Mets pitcher Al Leiter to remark: “I’m very grateful and appreciative that the commissioner of baseball feels that, 48 hours before another work stoppage, it’s important enough for him to leave Milwaukee and go to New York.”

Selig has said his negotiating committee had full authority to complete an agreement. But the union has been wary, according to sources, of making pivotal concessions on the tax and revenue sharing without assurances from Selig that he can get an agreement ratified by the 30 owners, including seven or eight hard-liners who have lobbied Selig to make a meaningful deal.

Because the sides have agreed on random steroid testing, conditioned on an overall agreement and covering only steroids and not recreational drugs, only the tax and revenue sharing remain among the major issues to be resolved.

Times staff writer Paul Gutierrez in Los Angeles contributed to this report.