Deal Is Reached on Drug Testing

NEW YORK —  As Commissioner Bud Selig was preparing Tuesday to leave Milwaukee on his private plane today to participate in the final attempts to reach a bargaining agreement and avoid baseball’s ninth work stoppage in 30 years, negotiators for the players and owners removed one obstacle when they reached what a union lawyer confirmed is a virtual agreement on steroid testing.

During three meetings in Major League Baseball’s Park Ave. offices and numerous phone conversations, they also continued what management lawyer Rob Manfred described as largely conceptual discussions on the critical issues of revenue sharing and payroll tax, while still waiting for the union to respond to the owners’ last offer on Sunday.

This is where Selig is expected to pick it up today, directly participating in the talks for the first time with 1) only two full days remaining before the union’s Friday strike date and 2) the union and others privately believing he needed to be present before a deal could be finalized.

Manfred reiterated Tuesday that his negotiating committee has full authority to consummate an agreement on behalf of the 30 clubs and that he has been in constant communication with Selig, but sources say the union has been leery of making further concessions on the tax/revenue sharing package without assurances from Selig that he can get an agreement past a militant core of owners and ratified by 16 or more of the 30 clubs, providing he is not tied to that militant core.

The Major League constitution calls for majority approval of a new bargaining agreement, but three-fourths (23 of 30) approval on revenue sharing, which could be a problem if the seven or eight militant owners conclude that the revenue parcel does not transfer enough money to the low revenue clubs.

The sides, of course, first have to get to an agreement, and union counsel Gene Orza, reflecting, perhaps, on a history of mistrust, said that, “It’s always better for the commissioner to be part of the negotiations.”

Reached in Milwaukee, Selig was reluctant to discuss his decision, pointing out that he maintains faith in his negotiators, that many chief executives never go to the table and that “I don’t want to make too much or too little” of it, but he added, “if we don’t get an agreement by Thursday night, we’ll be on dangerous ground.”

He seemed to suggest that there would be no way on Friday morning to still save that day’s slate of games, although Manfred said he was unaware of a Thursday night deadline and would have to discuss it with the commissioner.

Of Selig’s arrival, Manfred said:

“I think people’s expectations in respect to his involvement in this process are misguided. He is, after all, the CEO of baseball, and it is the rare event in this country when a CEO of a major corporation becomes directly involved in a labor negotiation. He’s been fully consulted and is fully on board with everything we’ve done.”

Both Manfred and Orza agreed Tuesday that they still have time to get an agreement, and a person familiar with the status of negotiations said, “the deal is there if Bud and the hawks will let them make it.”

Neither, however, would discuss the specifics of where they are on revenue sharing and the tax, and there is no clear indication they have bridged the financial or conceptual gaps.

Nor would they discuss the steroid agreement (Manfred would only say they have gotten closer), but Paul Lo Duca, the Dodger catcher and union representative, told reporters in Los Angeles that the union’s conference call Tuesday made it clear that “the drug test part of the deal is done. We agreed on that, and that’s great.”

Lo Duca said it was his understanding that players will be tested once in spring training and once randomly during the season, that the tests will cover steroids, cocaine and marijuana, and that there will be both discipline and assistance programs built into the package. It isn’t clear whether the plan hinges on a year or two of survey testing first to determine the extent of steroid use, as the union proposed, or whether it covers all four years of the potential agreement, as management demanded and the union opposed.

Lo Duca said the tone of Tuesday’s union update was positive and he came away thinking “they’re getting close” to an agreement on all fronts.

The Dodgers still plan to travel to Houston for a weekend series Thursday night, but several clubs said they are canceling Thursday night travel and will wait until Friday to make a decision, which seemed to support Selig’s suggestion of a Thursday night deadline.

Selig refused to characterize where the talks stand, but he told a high ranking Fox executive that he was optimistic an agreement can be reached.

Will he try to facilitate it as part of his negotiating committee? The union is curious to find out.