Positions of baseball players and owners appear to be hardening, with a strike deadline just nine days away.

        Donald Fehr, Major League Baseball Players Association executive director, said in a memo to players and agents last weekend that “the owners' combined revenue sharing and luxury tax proposals would be tantamount to a salary cap”- which the union vehemently opposes. The Enquirer obtained a copy of the memo Tuesday.

        The union calculates that, under current proposals from the owners, the New York Yankees would give up $86.9 million in revenue sharing and “luxury taxes.”

        “There's definitely a reason that (Yankees owner George) Steinbrenner in particular is quite peeved about this,” said Doug Pappas, an attorney and head of the Society for American Baseball Research's business of baseball committee.

        And Steinbrenner might be taking action to defend his turf. Two New York newspapers reported he has asked attorney David Boies to explore legal remedies for any losses the Yankees take as a result of a labor contract. The New York Times also quoted San Diego Padres owner John Moores saying that, if the players strike, he is prepared to shut down baseball for a year to get a deal he says the game needs. He estimated that “8 or 10” other owners feel the same way.

        Reds owner Carl Lindner declined comment Tuesday. Privately, he has been sympathetic with those who want to impose a salary cap or a stringent luxury tax, feeling that the disparity between small-market clubs and big-market teams such as the Yankees must be narrowed. But a long work stoppage could hurt the Reds, with Great American Ball Park scheduled to open next season.

        The owners originally proposed a tax of 50 percent on payrolls over $98 million. Fehr, in the memo, said that would have affected seven teams, with another three within $10 million: “We told the owners that payroll taxes affecting that many Clubs at such high rates would greatly reduce player salaries across the board.”

        When the owners last week offered to raise the threshold to $100 million, it still left seven teams above the figure. The owners' current proposal is $102 million for 2003 and 2004, to be adjusted by inflation in 2005 and 2006.

        Pappas said that is clearly unacceptable to players, because, since the last agreement was signed in 1996, baseball's revenues doubled, and payrolls rose, as well. Assuming revenues and payrolls continue to rise, the owners' proposal means more teams every year would be subject to the tax, he said.

        Fehr said in the memo that seven to 12 teams would be subject to the tax in 2003 - and, with the threshold held steady, the number of teams having to pay “almost certainly would increase over time.”

        The players have proposed higher thresholds that would affect fewer clubs. Citing the players' movement on issues of drug testing and revenue sharing, “the players have addressed what the Clubs have said are their concerns in bargaining, but not what their revenue sharing and tax proposals reveal is the objective: a wholesale attack on the salary structure,” Fehr wrote.

        “We remain hopeful that between now and the 30th (the players' strike date), the owners will respond meaningfully to our proposals and conclude a fair and equitable agreement,” he wrote.

        Robert Manfred, the owners' chief labor negotiator, said Fehr's comments are baffling. He called the proposed tax “a speed bump on the very highest payroll clubs” and said any payroll cuts by the richest teams would be offset by payroll increases for teams getting money through revenue sharing.

        “At the end of the day, our biggest concern with respect to the proposals that we have on the table is that we will actually spend more rather than less (on payroll),” Manfred said.

        Negotiators for the players and owners met twice Tuesday, discussing the core issues of revenue sharing and the luxury tax. Manfred said the talks were productive, but couldn't say whether an agreement is closer.

        Cliff Peale contributed.

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