Management Leader Sets Goal Of March 5

Baseball players and owners must strike a deal by March 5 to have striking major leaguers back on the field by opening day, management’s lead negotiator said Friday in New York.

Talks resume in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Monday - the 200th day of the strike. The regular season is still scheduled to start April 2.

“I think we need about three weeks of full spring training for our players,” Red Sox chief executive officer John Harrington said during a news conference in Fort Myers, Fla., where Boston trains.

“That means they have to take the field on March 13th or 14th. That means we would really have to settle up on the 3rd, 4th or 5th of March on the collective bargaining because there’s several hundred ballplayers out there who are unsigned with their clubs, so we would need a period of eight to 10 days to sign players.”

Harrington also said if a settlement is reached later in March, the start of the season could be delayed and the number of games decreased to avoid starting the World Series in November.

Just 324 of the approximately 1,100 players on 40-man rosters have agreed to contracts covering 1995. The union banned signings from Dec. 23 to Feb. 5 while owners had imposed a salary cap. Since withdrawing the cap, teams have refused to sign players.

“I don’t disagree with the notion that it’ll take eight to 10 days to sign,” union head Donald Fehr said. “I agree with John. But I don’t want to get into precise dates.”

Harrington, who took over as lead negotiator from Richard Ravitch last November, said owners are prepared to start the regular season with the replacement players they’ve signed.

Unions against union

Two unions representing 1,000 workers at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh said they won’t honor the players’ strike.

Officials of the Service Employees International and the Teamsters in Pittsburgh said groundskeepers, vendors, ushers, ticket takers and other stadium employees will go to work April 3 on opening day even if it means crossing picket lines.

“I don’t like scab labor or replacement players, but I’ve got my people to worry about,” said Gil Maffeo, president of Service Employees Local 508, which has 500 members.

Unless union leaders order them to stay away, 500 Teamsters also will report to the stadium when the Pittsburgh Pirates open against the Montreal Expos, said William Gross, Local 250’s secretary-treasurer.

“The players have never honored our strikes, so we’re not honoring theirs,” Gross said.

Expansion plans

Two baseball teams would be added in 1998 and two more perhaps in 2000 under a plan the expansion committee intends to recommend to owners.

The plan will be presented at a three-day meeting of owners in Palm Beach, Fla., starting March 7.