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

DATE: MONDAY, April 3, 1995                   TAG: 9504200014
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                 LENGTH: Medium

TEAMS TO STARS: `PLAY BALL!'

Owners accepted the players' back-to-work offer Sunday, skipping a lockout vote that would have prevented real major leaguers from reporting to spring training.

``It feels good to talk about the season starting, talking about baseball. We are back and will open April 26,'' acting Commissioner Bud Selig said. ``It's not anything I want to go through again.''

``The clubs hope that the 1995 season - including the postseason - will be played without interruption,'' Selig said. ``We hope our fans never again have to go through the heartache we've endured the last eight months.''

Union head Don Fehr said: ``I think it's clearly a step in the right direction. If they had voted for a lockout, it would have been a clear indication they didn't want peace - at any price.''

Fehr said the voluntary reporting date for spring training camps will be Wednesday, with a mandatory reporting date of Friday.

Still to be resolved in the back-to-work agreement are matters such as dates for re-offering contracts, salary arbitration filing and other issues. Lawyers for both sides were in contact throughout the day.

Players ended their strike Friday after U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor slapped owners with an injunction and restored the old work rules. A hearing is scheduled Tuesday before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the owners' motion for a stay of the injunction and an expedited appeal.

Teams were told to release all their replacement players Saturday night, although some strikebreakers stayed on and signed minor-league contracts. Some were bitter.

``The owners got a high fast ball under the chin and their knees buckled,'' said Billy Faultz, a Cincinnati Reds replacement pitcher.

Under the tentative agreement, each team would play 144 games, 18 fewer than the original schedule. That would result in the cancellation of the season's first 252 games, raising the total number of games wiped out by the strike to 921.

Boston Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette said teams were hoping to start exhibition games April 13.