League Baseball Players

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- Special mediator William J. Usery has kept a last-ditch negotiating session alive for five days, but there still is no sign of a thaw in baseball's frozen labor dispute.The players informed the owners early yesterday that they were not interested in the latest management counterproposal, a decision that was expected to end the final round of talks and encourage the owners to go through with their long-standing threat to implement a salary cap.There has been no change in plans, but Usery kept both sides together late again last night and into this morning in an attempt to head off a declared impasse.

It all started almost two years ago when, just because they could, the overstuffed shopkeeps who run baseball's legalized monopolies committed mischief by declaring negotiations on a new Basic Agreement reopened a full year before the existing document expired.What has unfurled since might well be history's longest running game of charades -- Guinness could not be reached for confirmation -- a low comedy in which neither players nor owners ever seemed to have a clue trying to decipher the signals being semaphored from the other side of the bargaining table.

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The Texas Rangers were in T-shirts. The team was forced to open training camp with replacement jerseys yesterday when a shipment of uniforms did not arrive from Japan. A sign of the times.Spring training -- circa 1995 -- is all about making adjustments. The Rangers have scoured the baseball landscape for months, signing dozens of players to minor-league and replacement contracts in preparation for baseball's season on the blink. Coming up with 108 blue T-shirts was the least of their problems.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The baseball labor negotiations fell apart yesterday, leaving little hope that the 1995 season can be spared the prospect of replacement games.Major League Baseball Players Association head Donald Fehr went home to New York after expressing disgust at ownership's latest proposal. Most of the ownership contingent headed for Palm Beach, Fla., where the owners will begin a three-day meeting tomorrow to work on expansion and discuss the deteriorating labor situation."There is no use staying here," said special mediator William J. Usery.

LOS ANGELES -- The billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard advertises yesterday's release on DVD of the baseball movie The Rookie, three days before the scheduled strike by Major League Baseball players. This is one instance in which a film trumps the reality of rich ballplayers who want to strike for more money. The Rookie is based on a true story about a guy who loves baseball and perseveres against incredible obstacles until he makes it in the majors. I'm a sucker for baseball movies, not only because they remind me of my youth when I accompanied my dad to Washington Senators games, but also because baseball perpetuates a wonderful myth about American sport, competition and fair play.

DETROIT - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig would love to use the sweeping powers of his office to rid the sport of performance-enhancing drugs ... if only his powers were as sweeping as some people would like to believe. Selig has asked the Major League Baseball Players Association to join him in adopting a much tougher steroid-testing program than the one that currently appears to be working just fine, because the fact that it seems to be working is only half the battle. "I believe this is an integrity issue," Selig said yesterday.

DETROIT - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig would love to use the sweeping powers of his office to rid the sport of performance- enhancing drugs if only his powers were as sweeping as some people would like to believe. Selig has asked the Major League Baseball Players Association to join him in adopting a much tougher steroid-testing program than the one that currently appears to be working just fine, because the fact that it seems to be working is only half the battle. "I believe this is an integ rity issue."

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The baseball labor negotiations fell apart yesterday, leaving little hope that the 1995 season can be spared the prospect of replacement games.Major League Baseball Players Association head Donald Fehr went home to New York after expressing disgust at ownership's latest proposal. Most of the ownership contingent headed for Palm Beach, Fla., where the owners will begin a three-day meeting tomorrow to work on expansion and discuss the deteriorating labor situation."There is no use staying here," said special mediator William J. Usery.

Baseball's four-year-old labor dispute remained unresolved last night, as a mutually agreed-upon midnight settlement deadline passed and both sides prepared to spend another winter under the rules of the previous collective bargaining agreement.Owners made no effort to save a proposed contract as midnight passed, but put off a decision to OK next year's schedule without interleague play.Interim commissioner Bud Selig failed this week to persuade the Major League Baseball Players Association to agree to changes in a contract proposal that was hammered out by management negotiator Randy Levine and union chief Don Fehr, leaving the industry in limbo and apparently canceling a 1997 experiment with interleague play.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Once again, the baseball labor talks have moved across the emotional spectrum, this time from hope to despair. Negotiations have deteriorated to the point where it seems unlikely that the 1995 season will be spared the prospect of replacement ball."