Baseball Owners Upbeat

No one was predicting a settlement, but if the owners especially are to be believed, two days of talks have established a conciliatory tone that could be critical toward finally ending the strike.

“We had more meaningful discussion today than at any time since this negotiation began,” Rockies owner Jerry McMorris said. “We made more progress today than we ever have.”

To put such optimism in perspective, it should be noted that union head Donald Fehr did not attach as much significance to the session. Also, both sides agreed that there was no give-and-take on the critical issue of a luxury tax, but rather general discussion of the issues.

Still, even Fehr indicated it was a day of meaningful discussion, enabling the two sides to get “a number of points clarified that suggested we didn’t communicate with each other (in the past) as well as we should have.”