Whatever the resolution in the current dispute between baseball's major and minor leagues, the Baltimore Orioles' relationships with their Maryland-based farm clubs will remain intact next season.
The Orioles have contracts to continue affiliations with the Class AA Hagerstown Suns and Class A Frederick Keys for 1991 and strong bonds with both for the future.
"It'll be business as usual for us," said Keith Lupton, general manager of the Keys. "We have an excellent relationship with the Orioles."
Suns general manager Bob Miller said: "We have another year, and so does Frederick. We're the only ones in the system that are good."
Orioles player personnel director Doug Melvin was reluctant to talk about the ongoing negotiations, which involve the division of finances and control of the minors.
But Melvin did say that of the Orioles' five farm clubs, only the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings would be affected if no agreement were reached and the majors carried through with a threat to prepare players at colleges or at complexes in Arizona and Florida.
The Orioles operate the rookie league team in Bluefield, W.Va., and the club still has not settled on a short-season Class A team since the Wausau Timbers disbanded.
The two sides met for five hours in New York Tuesday, and Bill Murray, chief negotiator for the majors, said he and Mike Moore, the minors' chief negotiator, might have found a way to clear a major hurdle in their dispute -- the commissioner's role in minor-league franchise matters.
The major leagues sent their new proposal to the minor leagues yesterday, and said they addressed all the open issues, as major- and minor-league officials headed to their winter meetings, which begin at separate sites Saturday.
But Murray also said that differences remained in five substantive areas:
* Term of an agreement.
* Whether the majors would guarantee player-development contracts for all minor-league teams for the length of the new agreement.
* Scheduling.
* Allocation of minor-league costs.
* How to restart the affiliations with those minor-league clubs whose player-development contracts were canceled.
Peter Kirk, principal owner of the Suns and Keys, also is a member of the National Association (minor leagues) negotiating team. He said he foresees a settlement.
"I've been optimistic all along that there will be a deal, because it makes sense on both sides," Kirk said. "Our offer is more generous to the majors than I think they expected.
