Baseball Owners Authorize Another Last-And-Final Offer Union Chief Fehr Questioning Their Willingness To Negotiate

Baseball owners took another step toward a court confrontation with players, deciding Wednesday to authorize a “last and final” offer to the union.

Following meetings of the owners’ ruling executive and labor committee in Milwaukee, management negotiator Randy Levine said he probably will present the final offer next week. Talks are scheduled to resume Friday in New York.

“Last and final suggests an absence of a willingness to continue negotiations,” union head Donald Fehr said. “I hope they still want to negotiate it.”

If a deal isn’t reached in the week or so following the “final offer,” owners intend to ask U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor to lift the injunction keeping the rules of the expired labor agreement in force, management officials said on the condition they not be identified.

If Sotomayor grants the request, owners could declare an impasse and unilaterally impose new work rules.

“It has been clear for some time that they’re more interested in rattling sabers and issuing last-and-final things than they are in trying to reach an agreement,” Fehr said. “That’s too bad.”

If owners successfully impose new work rules, the union would consider striking again. However, this time it appears unlikely that players would walk out.

“Nothing is impossible in baseball, but I’d say another strike is remote,” Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine, the National League player representative, said Tuesday night. “Honestly, I have no idea. Personally, I hope we don’t even get close to that point. The players - and owners - have seen the consequences and no one I know wants to see it happen again.”

Players ended their strike after 232 days when Sotomayor issued the injunction on March 31, 1995. The strike wiped out the 1994 World Series and the first three weeks of the 1995 season.

Attendance dropped 20 percent following the strike and has rebounded just 5.9 percent this season.