Settlement Less Likely Than Ever Latest Round Of Baseball Talks Collapses Over Differences In Luxury-Tax Proposals

Get ready for replacement players on opening day.

After a week of flickering optimism, baseball talks broke down once again Sunday, exactly four weeks before the regular season is scheduled to start April 2.

“Without a miracle,” Colorado Rockies chairman Jerry McMorris said, “major league players will not be on the field opening day.”

Both sides had agreed this weekend was critical if players were to end their 6 1/2-month strike in time to return for the season’s start. The 900 unsigned players need a week to negotiate contracts and all players need three weeks of practice to be ready.

“There’s a pretty clear indication to me the owners have already decided to blow off the beginning of the season,” union head Donald Fehr said.

Players and owners were angered by the proposals each made on Saturday. For now, there wasn’t much for them to talk to each other about.

“We have to find a way to get back to the table and get back to work,” acting commissioner Bud Selig said from his home in Milwaukee.

Owners began exhibition games last week with replacement players and minor leaguers willing to play and say they’re prepared to open the season with them, even if attendance is cut substantially.

“The game’s going to go on,” said McMorris, who took over as the owners’ lead negotiator after Selig left Thursday night. “The only question is, ‘Which players are going to be on the field?’ We can’t let this paralyze the whole industry and the whole country as far as baseball.”

The focus of the talks probably will shift to the National Labor Relations Board, which this week is expected to rule on the union’s unfair labor practice charges. If the NLRB issues a complaint against owners, which is expected, the agency probably would seek an injunction restoring all the old work rules - including salary arbitration.

Both sides kept lower-level delegations at the talks, but Fehr and McMorris left town. McMorris said he expected little bargaining until after this week’s owners meeting that starts Tuesday.

Since the sides gathered last Monday, the mood swung back and forth. The first three days were civil but didn’t delve into details. Selig bolted from the table Thursday but the following day saw a small breakthrough when players finally accepted the owners’ revenue-sharing plan.

The sides got stuck again on Saturday. Owners proposed a 50 percent luxury tax on the portions of payrolls above the average, which was $40.7 million last year according to management’s accounting. Fehr called it a “step backward” and an “in-your-face” proposal.

“The salary structure would crash and they would have the equivalent of their salary cap,” Fehr said. “We’re back close to square one.”