Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 19, 1990 TAG: 9003212484
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Players, managers, owners and the fans found out late Sunday that a contract settlement had been reached and the lockout was over.
"It's great news," Boston Red Sox manager Joe Morgan said from Winter Haven, Fla. "We're all in the same boat and now we'll get the troops ready. I don't think it will take long to get everybody into shape."
A source, who asked not to be identified, said opening day would be April 9, a one-week delay.
"The big thing will be to make sure nobody gets hurt," Morgan said. "But I don't recall anyone getting hurt after the long layoff in 1981."
Players said they needed at three weeks to get into shape.
"We're ready to go back to work," Red Sox pitching coach Bill Fisher said. "We've had all our pitchers working under cover. The rest of the teams in the American League had better watch out."
The Seattle Mariners said they hope to open their camp today.
"We're ecstatic about it and we'll begin spring training tomorrow," spokesman David Aust said in a telephone interview.
Aust said the first formal workouts wouldn't begin until later in the week after the equipment is trucked from Seattle to the team's spring-training grounds in Tempe, Ariz.
He said players would be asked to report starting Monday.
Fans all over the country, including President Bush, had implored the two sides to get together. Bush's son, George Jr., is part owner of the Texas Rangers.
"I'm happy its over," Rangers general manager Tom Grieve said. "I'm happy the players are going to be here [in Florida]."
"The last week or 10 days, this thing [the lockout] has gotten very boring. I don't think it's been positive for players, for management or for baseball.
"The fans in Arizona and Florida have been deprived of baseball and that's not good."
Pittsburgh vice president Rick Cerrone said the Pirates would be ready for baseball today.
"Obviously, the Pirates are delighted to be able to get back to playing baseball," Cerrone said. "We are delighted that this is now behind us, and now we have a lot of work to do."
Asked whether the Pirates have begun preparing to leave for Florida, Cerrone said, "I imagine we are. We certainly are. We had the stuff ready to get on that truck when we left on Friday. We had all kinds of contingency plans ready so we'd get down there as quickly as we legally can."
New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles officials said each team's equipment trucks had left for Florida and would be there today or Tuesday.
Negotiations day-by-day
Chronology of events in baseball's labor negotiations for the latest contract:
\ Nov. 15 - Scheduled first negotiating session postponed by management.
\ Nov. 27 - Barry Rona resigns as executive director and general counsel of the owners' Player Relations Committee.
\ Nov. 28 - Chuck O'Connor appointed general counsel. First negotiating season held.
\ Nov. 29 - Second negotiating session held.
\ Dec. 7 - Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, criticizes Commissioner Fay Vincent for describing collective bargaining as warfare.
\ Dec. 12 - Talks resume in Los Angeles. Roster size, spring-training conditions, discussed.
\ Dec. 13 - Continuation of discussion on roster size, spring-training conditions. Union proposes return to 25-man roster.
\ Dec. 14 - PRC outlines pay-for-performance and revenue-sharing proposals.
\ Dec. 19 - Talks resume in New York. Non-economic issues discussed.
\ Dec. 20 - Union complains about the treatment of younger players.
\ Jan. 9 - Union proposes minimum salary of $100,000 to $125,000 as talks resume. PRC tells clubs to halt spring-training preparations.
\ Jan. 10 - Owners propose revenue-sharing plan in which players would get 48 percent of money from tickets and television and radio contracts. Union tells players to halt spring-training preparations.
\ Jan. 17 - Sides' issues discussed for 7 1/2 hours.
\ Jan. 18 - In the 11th session, the union says it must have decision-making power in order to participate in revenue-sharing.
\ Jan. 24 - Thirty-seven players attend session in Tampa, Fla., and hear Mets general manager Frank Cashen and Milwaukee general manager Harry Dalton explain pay-for-performance plan.
\ Jan. 25 - Management says economic disparity between clubs in large and small cities will not occur during the new contract. Fehr and the players say they have not seen any reasons why they should accept the revenue-sharing plan.
\ Jan. 31 - Fehr expresses frustration with management. Owners withdraw proposal on collusion language.
\ Feb. 1 - O'Connor repeats that camps will not open without an agreement. Teams agree on $25 a day in outside housing money for spring training and dropping restrictions that made players stay in spring-training hotels.
\ Feb. 2 - Negotiators discuss pension plan, which expires April 1.
\ Feb. 5 - Talks move to Doral Inn, site of negotiations during the 50-day strike in 1981. Sides agree to establish permanent labor-management committee and to allow 30-day injury-rehabilitation assignments for pitchers with consent of the player.
\ Feb. 6 - Sides meet without progress.
\ Feb. 7 - Negotiations recess with both sides predicting owners will reaffirm lockout stance.
\ Feb. 9 - Owners meet in Rosemont, Ill., and again say camps will not open without an agreement.
\ Feb. 12 - Vincent enters formal talks.
\ Feb. 13 - Vincent makes nine-point proposal, which tables revenue sharing and pay-for-performance plans and proposes 75 percent cap on salary increases in arbitration.
\ Feb. 14 - Union says Vincent proposal is progress in that the sides are talking about the sames issues but is a step backward in many respects.
\ Feb. 15 - Lockout begins. Sides meet in Vincent's office.
\ Feb. 16 - Fehr says he believes owners finally are serious about wanting an agreement.
\ Feb. 19 - No progress at 24th session.
\ Feb. 20 - Union says it will break off talks an agreement is not reached by Feb. 22.
\ Feb. 21 - Players react with "outrage" to management's new proposal, which would eliminate most comparisons in salary arbitration.
\ Feb. 22 - Owners reverse course and present new proposal that increases minimum salary and benefits, loosens restrictions on repeat free agents and lessens draft-pick compensation for free agents. Union sees progress.
\ Feb. 23 - Sides agree to proposal on repeat free-agency rights. Schedule first weekend session of talks.
\ Feb. 24 - Agreements reached on all "non-economic issues" but no movement on salary arbitration.
\ Feb. 26 - Talks break off without a meeting. Union says it will return to the bargaining table only when management shows movement.
\ Feb. 27 - Union executive board meets in Phoenix and Fehr says players are united arbitration stand.
\ Feb. 28 - On what was to be the mandatory reporting date, O'Connor says positions are hardening.
\ March 1 - The U.S. Senate, in 82-15 vote, urges the sides to "settle their differences promptly and begin a complete spring-training and regular season as soon as possible."
\ March 5 - Fehr has two-hour meeting with Deputy Commissioner Stephen Greenberg.
\ March 6 - Talks resume after nine-day layoff with 6 1/2-hour night meeting. Management increases offer on minimum from $85,000 to $90,000 and benefits contribution from $44.86 million per year to $50 million per year. No progress on arbitration eligibility.
\ March 7 - The union rejects management's proposal for a $4 million yearly bonus pool for players between two and three years and asks that the top half of those players by service time be made eligible for arbitration. The union lowers minimum salary proposal to $105,000 and benefit plan proposal to $57 million per season.
\ March 8 - Vincent proposes that owners end the lockout if the union promises not to strike during the 1990 season, an idea the union immediately rejects. Owners do not respond to players' latest proposal.
\ March 16 - Owners make new proposal, calling for $100,000 minimum and $55 million contribution to the benefits plan, and withdrawing bonus-pool proposal.
\ March 18 - Agreement reached on a four-year contract, calling for 17 percent of two-to-three-year players to be eligible for arbitration.
by CNB