On Day 28 of Baseball Lockout, There’s Nothing but Small Talk

The Major League Players Assn. and the owners’ Player Relations Committee exchanged draft language on several of the non-critical collective bargaining issues Wednesday, but there were no formal meetings and none are scheduled today.

In the only substantive development on Day 28 of the owners’ spring training lockout, Don Fehr, executive director of the union, and Charles O’Connor, the PRC’s general counsel, participated in a hearing at the union’s New York office.

Arbitrator George Nicolau, who conducted the hearing, said later he will have a decision next week on a union motion requesting that he order the owners to put $52 million of their $170-million lockout fund into an escrow account as a down payment on collusion damages.

Fehr said he otherwise spent the day responding to a number of calls from players supportive of the union’s position but angry at the situation, and angrier yet at the criticism that the owners are directing at them.

“What you have is a lot of owners coming out of the woodwork now,” Fehr said. “It’s all orchestrated, a part of their public relations campaign.

“They know the lockout is a disaster and that they’re going to have to cancel part of the season, so they’re trying to make it look like it was the players’ idea.”

Ewing Kauffman, owner of the Kansas City Royals, joined the chorus Wednesday.

“We have given, given, given,” Kauffman said of the owners’ negotiating tactics. “I’m getting tired of giving. I’d like to settle. I think we’ve gone our share down the road.

“It would be foolish for us to lose the season over the minor things that are left. But if they don’t settle soon it would be my nature to withdraw everything that’s been offered and close the season down.”