Replacement M’S Get Pounded, 10-1

Spring training

The replacement players of the Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners have one exhibition game under their belts, and they like playing a lot better than the alternative.

“Most of the guys that came out here to be replacement players are just taking it as long as it can go,” said Rick Morris, who started at third base in Seattle’s 10-1 loss Friday in Peoria, Ariz. “If guys get a second opportunity, that’s great, but if they’ve never been to the big leagues before, they’re just living out a dream.”

Morris qualifies. He spent six years in the minors before Atlanta released him three years ago.

He went hitless in two at-bats, striking out the first time up against Cubs starter Luis DeLeon, the closest thing to a major leaguer in the game.

Paid attendance at Peoria Stadium was announced at 2,789, but the actual attendance appeared to be closer to 700. A year ago, when the 10,000-capacity ballpark opened with the Mariners playing co-tenant San Diego, attendance was 5,396.

DeLeon, 36, out of baseball for three years after running up a 17-19 record in seven seasons with St. Louis, San Diego, Baltimore and Seattle, struck out six of nine batters in three perfect innings.

Players make concession

Trying to revive flagging talks, the striking Major League Baseball Players Association offered a new proposal in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The proposal included a significant concession. The union accepted the clubs’ “Fort Lauderdale” revenuesharing plan, to be phased in during a five-year agreement. The union also agreed to the concept of a luxury tax.

The union said it would accept for three years a 25 percent tax at a threshold to be determined. The threshold would be somewhere from 100 to 145 percent of the average payroll, including benefits. In 1994, that average was about $40.7 million.

The Fort Lauderdale plan, agreed to in January 1994, calls for redistribution of about 3 percent of baseball’s gross revenue. The revenue would go to small-revenue teams. According to union executive director Donald Fehr, ownership made an important move by admitting the revenue-sharing plan would act as a drag upon salaries.

The union also proposed unrestricted free agency for players with four or more years’ service time and salary arbitration for players with three years’ service time and those in the upper 17 percent of the two-year group.

The sides agreed to table discussion on free agency and salary arbitration and focus on the luxury-tax issue.

Steinbrenner fuming

Having seen his replacement team pounded for a second straight day, an angry George Steinbrenner is ready to swing into action.

His collection of wannabe New York Yankees were ripped by the Braves Friday, 8-2, on top of Thursday’s 11-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Steinbrenner wants replacements for his replacements. To help clear the way, there were six cuts Friday and Manager Buck Showalter suggested more cuts would be made in a few days.

Steinbrenner, meanwhile, claims clubs such as the Dodgers and the Braves possibly had inside information because their general managers, Los Angeles’ Fred Claire and Atlanta’s John Schuerholz, served on the eightmember general managers’ committee that recommended strategy for replacement baseball.

“If those teams loaded up because their general managers knew what was happening because they were on the inside, then I’m going to raise real hell,” Steinbrenner said. “I don’t know that for a fact. But I’m going to find out. Our guys might have been asleep at the switch. I don’t know. … We will take steps to see that our team can hopefully get up to strength.”