NEW YORK, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- With players prepared to strike after Thursday night's games, Commissioner Bud Selig is expected to arrive Wednesday in New York.
It is uncertain if Selig will join the labor talks, but he may be the most pivotal figure in convincing baseball's hard-line owners to broker a deal with the union.
However, the chief negotiator for Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, downplayed Selig's arrival and did not indicate the commissioner would take an active role in talks.
"What he is going to do in the room or out of the room is up to him," Manfred said. "He'll make that decision based on circumstances that exist at the time. I think people's expectations with respect to the commissioner's involvement in these talks are misguided. He is the CEO of baseball and it is a rare event when a CEO gets involved in a labor negotiation."
Some teams have changed travel plans to avoid flying players to cities where games might be canceled. The Chicago White Sox scrapped their charter to Detroit, and Boston will delay its flight to Cleveland until Friday.
Representatives for the players and owners met twice Tuesday to discuss the two key issues -- a possible luxury tax on team payrolls and revenue sharing. Manfred said the sides did not exchange any proposals, but instead discussed the ideas conceptually.
Friday's stoppage would be the sport's ninth in 30 years.
When the union agreed to set Friday as a strike date, it set in motion a chain of events that could result in the cancellation of the rest of the season for the second time in nine years.
Both sides remain divided on several substantive issues. The linchpin of the potential deal involves a proposed luxury tax on team payrolls. The owners' latest proposal calls for a tax of between 35 and 50 percent on payrolls over $107 million, with additional penalties imposed on repeat offenders.
The union has countered with a sliding scale tax that begins at 15 percent and could climb to 40 percent for repeat offenders in the third year of a four-year deal. But the union's scenario has teams being taxed on payrolls over $125 million in 2003 and increasing $10 million each season. The players also have eliminated the tax in the fourth and final year of their proposal.
The sides also differ on revenue sharing, an area in which owners have called for $263 million to be transferred in each year of the pact. The players again would like to deal in increments, beginning with just over $170 million in 2003 and increasing about $25 million per season.
The sides also need to finalize a steroid and drug testing policy, an issue that could prove to be a sticking point. How often players are tested and whether or not test results would be announced remain points of contention.
It was reported that a steroids agreement was reached on Tuesday, but neither side announced the agreement.
The one team that figures to be impacted most by a new agreement is the defending American League champion New York Yankees. It is the lone team that would be penalized under both the revenue sharing and luxury tax proposals.
Six other teams, including the Boston Red Sox and the reigning world champion Arizona Diamondbacks, have payrolls in excess of $100 million, according to management standards.
The sides have been able to agree on a number of relatively minor issues, such as minimum salaries and players' rehabilitation rights. Parameters also have been put in place for a worldwide player draft.
Bargaining sessions are set throughout the week, but the history of labor unrest between the parties almost assures that differences will go unresolved and negotiations will continue right up to Friday's deadline of 1 p.m. Eastern time.
