Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 22, 1994 TAG: 9412220099
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Talks between the two sides were in a state of virtual collapse, and the owners were poised to declare an impasse and implement a salary cap.
Less than 36 hours before the Thursday midnight deadline the owners established last week, negotiators for the two sides met at separate locations with mediator Bill Usery Jr. - the players three times, the owners once - then awaited further word from Usery, who apparently was not having a happy 71st birthday.
While they waited, one member of the management team remarked, ``Things don't look rosy from this vantage point.''
The atmosphere was painfully similar to the dark circumstances that existed just before the players struck on Aug. 12 and just before Bud Selig, the acting commissioner, announced the cancellation of the World Series Sept. 14.
The basic collapse in talks followed a three-hour, one-on-one meeting Tuesday night between Donald Fehr, head of the union, and Jerry McMorris, owner of the Colorado Rockies, who was designated by the owners' negotiating committee to try to make some progress in the stalemated dispute.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, Fehr said: ``This meeting, although friendly on a personal level and candid, leads to a candid description of our differences, which remain.''
In other words, Fehr let McMorris know the players would not accept a tax that would artificially affect their salaries and McMorris let Fehr know that the clubs would agree to no settlement that did not include a tax that would affect players' salaries.
by CNB