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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990                   TAG: 9003290150
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

GOOD WILL IN BASEBALL SHORT-LIVED

The new era of good feeling between baseball players and owners ended after little more than a week Wednesday when the deal for expanded rosters during the first three weeks of the season collapsed.

Union lawyer Eugene Orza said management tried to change the agreement. Rob Manfred, a lawyer for the owners' Player Relations Spring training report. C5 Committee, accused Orza of trying to alter the deal.

"Their sense of romance is very, very strange to me," Orza said. "They should be ashamed of themselves."

Manfred said Orza "wanted to make a different deal which wasn't as good [for the owners]."

In another development, the agreement to return major league umpires to exhibition games fell apart Wednesday when the two sides could not agree on an arbitrator.

Originally, Judge Stanley Greenberg was to consider the umpires' protest over the rescheduling of games without their input following the end of the spring training lockout.

But management went to U.S. District Court on Wednesday, asking Judge Norma Shapiro to disqualify Greenberg for undisclosed reasons. Shapiro refused the request and when the two sides went back before Greenberg, he disqualified himself at management's request.

Minor league umpires have been working spring training games since Monday, replacing major league umps in the dispute. They will continue to work until the dispute is settled.

Under the proposed roster and rules changes, teams would have been able to keep 27 players on the active roster until May 1 and starting pitchers would have been required to throw only three or more innings to get credit for a victory. The extra players and shortened requirement for starters were announced following the owners' 32-day lockout, which cut spring training to three weeks.

"Here we are planning for 27 players, then all of a sudden, they say it's 24. I think it's going to risk a lot of pitchers getting hurt," Phillies GM Lee Thomas said.

by CNB