Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003152777
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLAYERS SEEK COLLUSION DAMAGES/ BASEBALL UNION ASKS $51.6 MILLION

Instead, the union filed a request with arbitrator George Nicolau that owners pay $51.6 million in what the union says are the minimum damages from the first two collusion cases.

The money covered in the union's motion before Nicolau is for 1987 and 1988 damages from the 1985 and 1986 collusion cases. Arbitrator Thomas Roberts previously awarded the union $10.5 million for 1986 damages.

"We think it's entirely inappropriate and improper for them to hold money they admit belongs to the players," said Don Fehr, head of the union. "They have acknowledged it is a minimum $51.6 million, and it may be three times that amount."

Chuck O'Connor, the owners' chief negotiator, said the clubs had not decided how to respond to the motion, which is scheduled to be heard Wednesday.

Both sides decided last month that the players would need at least three weeks of training before opening day, scheduled for April 2. Although no agreement has been reached, Commissioner Fay Vincent and the American and National leagues did not make any announcement.

"We're working on that," Vincent said. "I'm trying to figure out what the process is. We're going to be meeting on that in the next couple of days."

Vincent said it was "highly unlikely" that regular-season games would be played April 2, and O'Connor said of a postponement: "It's not a foregone conclusion, but it's darn close to it."

Vincent said he will discuss the matter today with AL President Bobby Brown and NL President Bill White. O'Connor said he thought games would not be canceled day by day.

"I think it'll be either by week or by series or some component of time," O'Connor said.

As the spring training lockout reached 26 days, both sides said they were prepared to dig in for the long haul. Fehr spoke briefly with Vincent and O'Connor, but there was no progress.

Cincinnati canceled its traditional opening day parade because of the stalled negotiations.

"This would have been our 70th consecutive parade," said Tony Bare, chairman of the sponsoring Findlay Market Association. "Unfortunately, I think today was the deadline, and we're going to have to cancel the parade."

Of 410 scheduled exhibition games, 297 already have been canceled. And regular-season games are on the verge of being wiped out by a work stoppage for the fourth time since 1972.

The issues remain the same.

The union wants the top half of players with between two and three years of major-league service to be eligible for salary arbitration. Owners counter with a $4 million bonus pool, and neither side is interested in the other's offer.

"They have rejected every concept of the pool process," O'Connor said.

Players want a $105,000 minimum salary, $15,000 more than owners are offering, and a $57 million yearly contribution to the benefit plan, $7 million more than management's latest proposal.

The arbitration problem remains the primary stumbling block. Vincent said he had spoken with general managers and "they simply can't believe . . . we can't find a way to find a resolution to this."

New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, speaking from Tampa, Fla., predicted Monday that owners would not fold this time.

"I hope [Fehr] isn't deluding himself and the players into thinking that since every other time, while Marvin [Miller] was in there, we capitulated, that we would do it again," Steinbrenner said.

Fehr said Steinbrenner's remarks were part of a campaign run by the Player Relations Committee, the owners' bargaining arm.

"Steinbrenner's comments today obviously are part of an orchestrated PR thing from New York," Fehr said. "It will be intensely personal, those are the early suggestions."