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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Clubs Increase Ante As Exhibitions Near

Associated Press

Spring training

The Milwaukee Brewers became the latest team to offer its minor leaguers an incentive for playing in spring training games - more meal money - while the Chicago White Sox sent home a pitcher Sunday who refused to participate in exhibitions.

The issue of who’s going to play and who’s not remained the hot topic of the spring. Even the rhetoric was heating up.

Asked how he’d deal with the players’ union leaders, New York Mets manager Dallas Green said: “I’d grab Don Fehr by the throat and his buddy Gene Orza and (Mark) Belanger along with him.”

The California Angels, who face Arizona State University in baseball’s first game of the spring, got written commitments Sunday from 45 of their 50 players that they would play. One player, whose identity was not known, refused and four others had not yet returned their paperwork.

The San Francisco Giants polled their players, forcing some to declare for the first time whether they will meet the union’s call to boycott or satisfy management by playing. Kansas City told its minor leaguers they would be considered striking players if they refused to play and would be sent home. Pittsburgh general manager Cam Bonifay said the team’s minor leaguers must give him their decisions by Monday.

“It’s a bad situation to put us in, a terrible situation,” said pitcher Archie Corbin, one of the Pirates’ final cuts last spring. “I wish it didn’t have to come down to all this. … I think everyone is facing the same dilemma.”

“It’s a nice big Catch-22 for you,” Boston first baseman Don Barbara said after Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette met with minor leaguers for 35 minutes.

On Monday, the union will hold a meeting for minor leaguers in Tampa, Fla. Also Monday, the 200th day of the strike, baseball owners and players will resume negotiations outside Phoenix.

Five of Baltimore’s 12 spring training opponents have given the Orioles a deadline of today to decide if they will use replacement players or minor leaguers with replacement clauses in their contracts.

Orioles owner Peter Angelos said his club isn’t budging from its decision not to use replacements.

Milwaukee general manager Sal Bando promised minor leaguers who played in exhibition games that they would get about $100-a-day meal money instead of the $11 a day they get at the minor league complex.

The Colorado Rockies have offered $150 per game for minor leaguers who play, while the Los Angeles Dodgers have said minor leaguers who take part in exhibition games will have a job in the system for the whole season.

Whether Barry Johnson will have a spot with the White Sox all year is uncertain. He was sent home after refusing to pitch in spring training games.

A few players with major league experience were seen at camps Sunday, albeit under different circumstances.

Casey Candaele was the most recognized player as a team of Dodgers minor leaguers beat the Samsung Lions of the Korean League 11-2. No admission was charged and about 250 fans filled the four-row aluminum bleachers on a back field for the game at Vero Beach, Fla.

Candaele went 2-for-5 and ended the game with a major-league caliber play on a grounder up the middle.

Second baseman Chico Lind created a bit of a stir when he walked through Royals’ complex in Haines City, Fla.

Lind was there to pick up his brother, Orlando, a pitcher who is scheduled to start the first spring game Thursday against Stetson University.