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Baseball Owners To Talk At Quarterly Meetings Meanwhile, Players Will Wait For Negotiations To Resume

Associated Press

A day after the both sides walked away from negotiations, baseball owners prepared Monday for their quarterly meetings and union officials returned to their office in New York.

No negotiations are scheduled this week, when the strike completes it seventh month. The sides had set a March 5 deadline for an agreement that would allow the season to start as scheduled with major leaguers, but at least one owner thought next weekend was the real deadline.

“I don’t see how we can go beyond Monday and still be ready for the opener,” Philadelphia Phillies president Bill Giles said in Clearwater, Fla. “I do have a hunch that the union leaders are waiting to see what happens at the owners’ meeting… . I guess hoping that some of the owners will say, ‘Let’s make a deal, whatever it is.’ I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Last Thursday, acting commissioner Bud Selig threatened to turn negotiations over to Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and lawyer Robert Ballow, who suppos edly would pursue an even harder line against the players. Reinsdorf dismissed that notion Monday during an interview with ESPN.

“I assume negotiations will start up again after our meetings in Florida,” Reinsdorf said. “I certainly don’t think there’s going to be any change. I have 100 percent confidence in our people and I know Bud Selig does.”

Selig was to arrive in Palm Beach today and stay at the same resort where owners are meeting. Union officials last week thought about coming to Florida for possible talks, but on Sunday decided against the move.

Donald Fehr, executive director of the players’ union, speaking from New York, said the union wasn’t at fault for the breakoff in negotiations.

“We haven’t been accused of breaking the law twice,” he said. “They have and they’re about to be a third time.”

He was referring to the National Labor Relations Board, which issued an unfair labor practice complaint against owners in December and was about to issue another last month before management rescinded the salary cap.

The NLRB is expected to issue another complaint against owners this week for failing to restore the old work rules, such as salary arbitration. If the agency issues a complaint, it probably would seek an injunction. If a federal judge grants an injunction, players would end the strike.

During the ESPN interview, Reinsdorf said Fehr was rallying players around “a cause that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“We want the players to understand this particular union isn’t serving them well,” Reinsdorf said. “At some point, players will realize they’ve been misled by their union and ought to come back to work.”

The White Sox owner also denied the union’s accusation that he’s the power behind the throne.

“When Don Fehr says I’m the puppeteer pulling the string, he’s not insulting me, he’s insulting Bud Selig,” Reinsdorf said. “I think that’s also part of the strategy, to have a rift between Bud and me. But that’s not possible. We’re just too close.”