'TRAGIC...ABSURD,' SAYS VINCENT AS TALKS BREAK OFF (2024)

They've been roundly criticized for seeking to implement revenue sharing and salary caps at a time when the game is so prosperous. Now, though, the owners have come off all those ideas and offered almost the same system under which salaries climbed from $317,000 to almost $600,000 per season over the four years of the last agreement.

"We are not asking for give-backs," said Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig, chairman of the Player Relations Committee. "Fact is, what we're now offering is a proposal to get the game going again. All our efforts have been channeled to that."

Selig and other owners hope the players eventually will concur and not let the season be delayed over one year of salary arbitration eligibility -- which directly affects about 80 players a year.

The owners also hope to show that, after three months of their being portrayed as the heavies in this dispute, they are now the party of reasoned thought.

They made that clear today when it was revealed that Commissioner Fay Vincent and deputy commissioner Steve Greenberg telephoned the union several times the past two days to ask about finding a middle ground in the primary stumbling block -- whether players should be eligible for salary arbitration after two years of service or three.

Earlier in the day, Chuck O'Connor, the owners' chief negotiator, described Vincent's role as that of mediator and tonight he sounded like a mediator who had failed to bring two warring parties together.

"Disappointed is hardly the word," Vincent said. "I think it's really tragic. I think of all the people whose interests are at stake. The ordinary fan doesn't give a damn about the issues. All they care about is appearances, and the appearance is of two giant organizations overwhelmed by issues, fighting the circ*mstances where there's a national trust at stake. I find it tragic to the point of absurd."

Maryland's William Donald Schaefer and 13 other governors he prompted see it that way too, they said in letters yesterday to Vincent and both sides, calling the dispute "a national disgrace."

"Baseball is too important to our country -- both economically and culturally -- to allow this to drag on," the letter said.

"The season is in very heavy jeopardy," Vincent said. "There's an issue of face involved here too. One side says if I get that year I'll have, in some sense, won. The other side says if I give up that year there'll be a perception to have lost. The economics involved in front of the year pale from the economics of what's at stake with the season being postponed even a month. It's pretty clear it can't be economics. It has to be something more. It gets back to the face issue."

The owners apparently are willing to consider shortening the eligibility requirement by a few days or using a set of appearance criteria to make a few more players -- especially young stars such as Ellis Burks and Jeff Ballard -- eligible for the arbitration.

The PRC said today it might consider other alternatives, like raising the minimum salary and sweetening the benefit plan, if the players agreed to leave arbitration at three years.

"They were unable to solicit a proposal back from the union," said O'Connor. "The clubs just wanted to find out if there was any middle ground out there. The fact of the matter is, we can't negotiate with ourselves. We did as much as we could to find out if there's some middle ground. We couldn't do it, but our effort was sincere."

With no more sessions scheduled, Major League Players Association leaders tonight flew to Phoenix to attend a Tuesday morning meeting of their executive board.

Donald Fehr, executive director of the association, said he hadn't decided whether to return to New York on Wednesday. It's unlikely negotiations would resume until he does return.

Fehr said he didn't attend a full-blown bargaining session because the two sides had talked by phone long enough to know their positions. After meeting with reporters, a briefing cut short because he said he needed to catch a flight, Fehr was seen entering Vincent's office.

He stayed for "about two minutes" and said it was "a courtesy call" and nothing more.

O'Connor, Selig and others made it clear that the next move is up to Fehr and the union, and that they expected to hear from him after the Phoenix meeting.

"We gave them the memorandum with the 15 points on there," O'Connor said. "I'm sure they'll review them in Phoenix and we'll hear from them after that. The ball is in their court, and until we hear from them, the talks are recessed."

For now, Fehr is holding firm that the players want arbitration eligibility moved from three years to two, and that unless they get it, there won't be an agreement.

"We have not broken through the salary arbitrator problem," Fehr said. "There have been no new proposals made with respect to the benefit plan, minimum salaries and roster sizes. I'll report to the players tomorrow what the status is and go from there."

Fehr said no formal new proposal had been made on arbitration, and seemed to indicate that if it were anything more than two years, his side would not accept it.

"I don't want anybody to think there's been any suggestion from our side that if you pick up a superstar or two with virtually three years of service, that that'll solve the problem," he said. "It won't."

They may have not said it to Fehr, but several Pirates players told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettethey are getting impatient. Asked if the year gap was worth risking the regular season -- Jay Bell (a would-be beneficiary since he's "20 days short of having two years in"), Bob Kipper and Neal Heaton said they thought not.

O'Connor said: "The clubs made significant proposals in minimum salaries and benefit plans. We have given it our best shot. The union gave it its best shot. It appears we're going to separate for a while now."

HIGHLIGHTS OF DISPUTE

ARBITRATION

CURRENT: Three years service.

OWNERS: Three years service.

PLAYERS: Two years service.

MINIMUM SALARY

CURRENT: $68,000.

OWNERS: $85,000 in 1990, increasing by $5,000 per year during the four-year contract, to $100,000 in 1993.

PLAYERS: $112,500 per season, increasing by $5,000 per season.

BENEFITS

CURRENT: Clubs contribute about $34.2 million per year.

OWNERS: $44.86 million.

PLAYERS: $60 million.

COLLUSION PROTECTION

CURRENT: None.

OWNERS: Triple damages and the right to reopen the contract.

PLAYERS: Similar.

ROSTER SIZES

CURRENT: 24 players.

OWNERS: 24 players.

PLAYERS: 25 players.