Hard-Line Owners Stall Talks

Baseball’s labor negotiations remained in limbo as some owners, opponents of crediting the players with service time while they were on strike, are now suggesting service time be offered in trade for an item that is part of another trade-off.

“The owners may have a lot of gall, but I can’t believe they’d ask (management negotiator) Randy Levine to go back to the table and reopen an already compromised trade-off,” a lawyer familiar with the talks said.

“It would be bad-faith negotiating, and I don’t think Randy would do it. He’d quit first.”

When long-stalled talks suddenly erupted into nearly 48 hours of round-the-clock meetings a week ago, the action stemmed from a union offer to reduce its share of divisional playoff receipts from 80 percent to 60 percent. In exchange, the players would get an option on a second, tax-free year at the end of what would be a six-year agreement, if the union exercised the option in 2001.

Now, according to the source, hard-line owners are trying to use the second, tax-free year as a possible trade for service time, which would destroy the potential settlement since a) it was the second, tax-free year that led to union concessions on other items and b) management would probably have to find a new negotiator.