Baseball Negotiators Will Return to Table

Acting baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has given labor negotiator Randy Levine permission to return to the bargaining table today.

An indication that the owners are willing to offer the players service time? An indication that Selig has the 21 votes necessary to ratify an agreement?

The beginning of the end to the long dispute?

Said Levine, “All I’ll say is that we need to get the talks restarted and I’m hopeful we can move toward closure.”

Said union leader Donald Fehr, “I’d like to believe we can cross the last few Ts and dot the last few I’s. We’ll see what happens.”

Management sources said it may take another four or five days to reach agreement, assuming progress.

Levine’s apparent mission: walk a high wire toward that goal, keeping the union at the table while going as far as he can to tweak unresolved issues before seeking final approval from owners.

Sources say that Levine and the owners know that the union will take nothing less than 100% of service time, although an attempt may be made to placate hard-line owners by offering the union a percentage of service time as part of the final trade-offs.

Levine was hesitant to discuss specifics but said he would not try to renegotiate concepts that have already been agreed to, a reference to the opposition by some owners to the union’s option on a second, tax-free year at the end of what would then be a six-year contract.

However, management sources said there are still open issues and still room for compromise movement. The owners’ quest for a three-man panel and other changes in the arbitration system, reported as completed, remains open and represents a potential area of compromise and trade.

“We’re anxious to hear what Randy has to say,” Fehr said. “We believe he wants to close, but it would be difficult to do that if he’s under orders to renegotiate a fundamental part of the deal. We talked for about 45 minutes today, but it was strictly on procedure, not substance.”