Like two angry schoolkids forced to shake and make up after an ugly playground fight, the owners and striking baseball players spent Saturday staring at their shoes and trying to summon the courage to stick out their hands.
They made a bit of progress. Each side submitted a compromise that narrowed the seemingly endless gulf between them. But the movement was so minuscule that it only tempered an air of optimism that erupted 24 hours earlier.
“We are still talking and the movement is in the right direction,” said Colorado Rockies owner Jerry McMorris, chief negotiator for the owners.
“Obviously, at the rate we’re moving we would be here until Labor Day. Some of us would have Arizona residence before it is over.”
Union head Donald Fehr was less optimistic. “The basic reaction all of us on the players’ side have is one of profound sadness,” he said. “We repeatedly take steps in their direction and they repeatedly back away.”
McMorris, known for his optimism throughout the 204-day strike, spoke with reporters early Saturday evening after briefing union leaders on the latest proposal from the owners.
That offer called for a seven-year contract, with either side allowed to reopen negotiations after five years. Players with more than four and fewer than six years’ major-league experience in the would be eligible for arbitration this year, but arbitration would be eliminated by 1996.
Owners have been adamant about getting rid of arbitration and the proposal to keep it in place for this year was a concession. But the owners said they would only agree to go even that far if arbitration awards were limited to 100 percent. In other words, the best a player could do would be to double his salary in arbitration.
The key sticking point, though, has been on the issue of a luxury tax, which is designed to keep player salaries from skyrocketing by imposing penalties on teams that insist on spending lavishly.
Under the latest owner compromise submitted Saturday, teams would pay a luxury tax of 50 percent if their payrolls exceeded $40.7 million this year.
Earlier, the union offered to accept a tax of 25 percent on payrolls above $54 million-down from a threshold of $59 million they sought earlier.
Even at the lower union threshold, however, only two teams in baseball-the Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves-would pay any taxes in 1995.
“We are still a long way apart,” said McMorris. “I’m sure finishing this is going to take compromise and it’s going to take compromise on both sides. We will stay here to get this finished if it can possibly be done.”
