Owners Want Two Changes

John Harrington, chief executive of the Boston Red Sox, said that baseball’s team owners will agree to a labor settlement with the major league players if the union makes two changes to the deal the owners rejected Wednesday. Harrington said one of the modifications is eliminating the union’s option to extend the agreement a year through the 2001 season, and sources close to the situation indicated the owners’ other demand is that an unlimited number of clubs should be permitted to pay payroll taxes in a given year.

Meanwhile, sources said that the 18-12 vote by the owners to reject the proposed settlement Wednesday in Chicago was not an accurate reflection of the support for the deal . People who participated in the meeting said it was clear that there were at least 14 votes against the proposed agreement, six more than necessary to keep it from being approved. And once it was clear that the settlement wouldn’t be ratified, they said, some owners called for a unanimous vote rejecting the deal. A dozen teams refused to go along.

Outfielder Lance Johnson, who wasn’t eligible for free agency until next year, got a $10 million, two-year extension from the New York Mets.

Andre Dawson and Brett Butler filed for free agency, and Mark Guthrie, who already had filed, agreed to a $3.2 million, two-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Former Yankees pitcher Steve Howe pleaded guilty in New York to gun possession and was sentenced to three years of probation and 150 hours of community service.

Howe, 38, was arrested June 24 at the Delta Airlines building at Kennedy Airport when a loaded .357 Magnum was detected inside his suitcase.

Howe and his wife were about to board a flight to Montana, where he lives.