Opening Day Is Slipping Away

Last Thursday, the eighth day of major league baseball's lockout, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was spotted entering the Manhattan office building where representatives of the game's owners and players were meeting. He wasn't there for the talks, but given that the two sides had had nearly 30 negotiating sessions and were still far from an agreement, someone probably should have grabbed Kissinger, thrown him into the meeting room and instructed him not to leave until a settlement was reached. Anyone's help would have been most welcome.

Especially to the owners, who have had a bad last three months. They are up against a resolute Players Association that feels it's payback time for what it calls financial "fibbing" by the owners during previous collective bargaining negotiations. And the players are negotiating with owners who, it became clear last week, are so disorganized that the best chance for agreement now lies in the hands of commissioner Fay Vincent, who entered the talks two weeks ago because, in the face of management disarray, he felt he had to do something. Indeed, the owners' confusion is a big reason why spring training games have been canceled and incredulous fans have been left to wonder how an industry at its alltime height in popularity and wealth could decide to shut itself down.

The owners have divided into two main factions. One consists of hard-liners, who for various reasons would accept a long lockout. The other is composed of those owners who believe they risk losing too much should the lockout extend into the regular season.

Four of those believed to be hard-liners are on the six-owner Player Relations Committee (PRC), including the chairman, Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers. Selig has complained that he can't compete financially with teams in the larger markets, and he has been pushing for drastic changes in the Basic Agreement with the players. Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, who has a reputation as a tough businessman, also operates in a small market. The Houston Astros' John McMullen has long bemoaned the free-spending ways of other owners. As a member of the committee, McMullen has maintained his tough position but is caught in a peculiar situation: He's trying to sell the Astros but is stymied until a labor agreement is made, and thus could benefit from a speedy settlement. Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox is also in the hard-line group; even though his team plays in the nation's No. 3 market, Reinsdorf's team ranks No. 2 in Chicago, behind the more popular Cubs. Also in this camp, though not on the PRC, are the two main owners of the Pittsburgh Pirates, former Westinghouse CEO Douglas Dan forth and lawyer Carl Barger. Barger has claimed that the small-market teams are becoming "a farm system" to Los Angeles, New York and Chicago teams.

The "soft" camp—those who are inclined to a quick settlement—includes those owners with the most to lose: the Los Angeles Dodgers' Peter O'Malley, the New York Mets' Fred Wilpon, the California Angels' Gene Autry and the New York Yankees' George Steinbrenner. Owners new to the industry, such as George W. Bush of the Texas Rangers and Jeff Smulyan of the Seattle Mariners, would also fall into this group; as first-timers, they are eager to play. So is Ewing Kauffman of the Kansas City Royals, who has always seen his franchise less as a profit center than as a civic resource and who, after spending freely in the off-season, has a team with championship expectations. There are also several owners, quiet moderates, whose leanings are less obvious.

Getting such disparate groups to act in unison is no easy task, and never were the owners in greater disaccord than in the last two weeks. After three months of getting nowhere, they dropped their revenue-sharing plan and their pay-for-performance formula for determining salaries of players with less than six years of major league experience. "It puts us on the same continent," said Eugene Orza, the Players Association's general counsel. "Unfortunately, the continent is Asia."

Then, a few days later, the owners infuriated the players anew with another drastic proposal, which, among other things, would have eliminated the use of free-agent contracts and multiyear contracts for purposes of comparison during salary arbitration hearings and would have eliminated the maximum salary cuts (20% for one-year contracts and 30% for two-year contracts) for players with three to six years' service. The next day deputy commissioner Steve Greenberg called the Players Association and told Orza, "Yesterday didn't happen." Presto, the proposal was scrapped.

"It's a peculiar way to negotiate," said Dodger pitcher Tim Belcher of the owners' change of direction. Added Brewers infielder Paul Molitor, "It's very hard to tell who's in charge for them."

It has been that way since Nov. 15, the scheduled beginning of the talks, which were immediately postponed by the owners. On Dec. 14 the owners outlined their revenue-sharing proposals but could not answer the players' key questions about the plan. When Players Association executive director Donald Fehr asked, for example, if the players would make more or less money under the proposal, Chuck O'Connor, executive director of the PRC, said, "I don't know."

"I kind of felt sorry for Chuck," said Phil Bradley, a Baltimore Oriole outfielder. "They sent him into a fight without any ammunition."