Luxury Tax

The damage from the Orioles' fourth-place season can now be calculated by something more than front-office intrigue, coaching changes and atrophied broadcast ratings. Salary commitments attached to the veteran team's 79-83 record will likely approach $89 million after the club pays luxury tax on a major-league payroll that swelled to $77.11 million, including benefits.The figure, based on management and labor sources, confirms the largest payroll in the game's history, but will only cause the club to break even or show a nominal loss, according to club executives.

Money talks, and it is speaking louder every year. The Orioles now own the dubious distinction of fielding the most expensive team in baseball history, and the gap between the richest and poorest clubs is wider than ever.What does all this mean?It means that -- for the most part -- the same teams are going to be in the postseason year after year, and, more ominously, it means that the next labor dispute between the owners and players could be as bitter as the last.If anyone thought that the 60-day players strike and the cancellation of the 1994 World Series was the war to end all labor wars, think again.

WASHINGTON -- The fiercest debates over the tax bills in Congress may have centered on children, college and capital gains, but for many small interest groups, dozens of less conspicuous provisions buried in the hefty documents are the most crucial to their pocketbooks.Seafood processors in Alaska, precisely north of 53 degrees north latitude, are one group that stands to benefit. So, too, would the weekend yachtsmen and incidental fishermen who tool around in diesel-guzzling pleasure craft.

It was a '90s kind of deal. The Cleveland Indians traded their contract problem to the Atlanta Braves for a star-quality outfielder who had priced himself out of the starting lineup and a center fielder on a fixed income.Confused?This is only the beginning. Major-league owners have been trying for years to find a way to emulate the NBA and the NFL and -- with the signing of the new collective bargaining agreement -- they finally have succeeded. You can't go to a game without tripping over the luxury tax threshold or pick up the newspaper without getting another unwanted economics lesson.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- After "kicking the tires of this deal all spring long," the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians made a stunning trade yesterday that was fueled by the economic concerns of both clubs.The Braves sent two-thirds of their outfield, David Justice and Marquis Grissom, to the Indians for center fielder Kenny Lofton, who is considered the best leadoff hitter in baseball, and relief pitcher Alan Embree.Considering the players and the teams involved, it is one of baseball's biggest trades in years.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar was tentatively scheduled to return to action this weekend after spending the past five weeks recovering from a sprained ankle, but manager Davey Johnson left the impression yesterday that he is in no hurry to put him back into the lineup."

CHICAGO -- Baseball's four-year labor dispute was settled yesterday, when owners voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association and end a battle over the economic future of the game.The owners voted 26-4 to approve the same agreement that they rejected, 18-12, three weeks ago, guaranteeing labor peace through 2000 and reviving a 1997 experiment with interleague play.The deal calls for a stiff luxury tax on player payrolls in excess of $51 million next year, with the threshold rising in 1998 and 1999.

Major-league owners apparently will vote again Tuesday on the proposed labor settlement that was rejected two weeks ago, and there are indications that the outcome might be different this time.Sources close to the negotiations indicate that there may be enough votes to approve the deal by the required 75 percent majority at a hastily arranged owners meeting in Chicago, though ownership power-broker Jerry Reinsdorf and an unlikely ally -- Orioles owner Peter Angelos -- still feel the settlement is not in the best interests of the industry.

The Orioles will be hit hard by the luxury tax plan about to be approved by baseball owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association, but owner Peter Angelos said yesterday he does not expect it to alter the club's front-office strategy."

Negotiations between baseball owners and players slowed perceptibly last night, but it still appears that the 3 1/2 -year dispute that damaged the 1994 and '95 seasons will come to an end soon.Management chief negotiator Randy Levine met with representatives of the Major League Baseball Players Association several times yesterday and early this morning in New York, following up on a negotiating marathon that stretched from early Friday until late Saturday night. The heady optimism that came out of that round-the-clock bargaining session was felt in ballparks all over the major leagues, but the issues under discussion are so complex that it could take many more hours to sort them out.The owners and players apparently have settled on a luxury taxation plan that would penalize large-market teams for heavily outspending their small-market counterparts, but they have spent the past three days trying to settle on the particulars.