Baseball players are unhappy about management's public relations offensive, and they let the owners know it when labor talks resumed Tuesday.

        Meanwhile, baseball owners started heading to Chicago for a meeting today, a session they did not publicly acknowledge.

        “I haven't talked about it and I'm not going to talk about it,” commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday night.

        Three other baseball officials, speaking on the condition they not be identified, did confirm the gathering. They said the purpose of the meeting was for Selig to give an update, and that no major actions were expected.

        Management officials have said in recent weeks that the players' association was trying to avoid bargaining sessions.

        Gene Orza, the union's No. 2 official, responded at Tuesday's meeting, the first since May 2, and the sides agreed to a series of six meeting dates during June. Orza said the union wasn't avoiding meetings, didn't appreciate management's criticism and reviewed how officials from both sides weren't available for meetings in recent weeks.

        Bob DuPuy, Rob Manfred and Sandy Alderson, three senior officials in the commissioner's office, have been meeting with newspaper editors and reporters from many major league cities to express their view that baseball needs a new economic system, one with vastly increased revenue sharing and a luxury tax that would slow the growth in player salaries.

        DuPuy skipped the bargaining session and headed to Chicago, where baseball owners were scheduled to meet Wednesday. No major a

        Talks were recessed until June 7, but there appears to be little urgency. Management has said that through the World Series, it will not lock out players or change work rules.

        “It's unclear where the process is going,” union lawyer Michael Weiner said.

        The old labor contract expired Nov. 7, and the union, fearing management might start a lockout after the postseason or change work rules, has started to think about possible strike dates, with August mentioned most often. Union head Donald Fehr has not yet decided whether to hold an executive board meeting July 8, the day before the All-Star game.

        During Tuesday's two-hour meeting, the sides also discussed some noncore issues, including the union's proposal to raise the minimum salary, currently $200,000.

        But negotiators touched only briefly on the key management proposals: a 50 percent luxury tax on the portions of payrolls above $98 million and an increase in the amount of shared locally generated revenue from 20 percent to 50 percent. The plan is designed to take away money from the high-revenue teams and redistribute it.

        DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer and Selig's longtime lawyer, did not attend the session and no players were present.

        The June 7 date, while likely, hasn't been finalized. The sides also agreed to meet June 11, 19, 20, 26 and 27.

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