Major League baseball players reached a new labour agreement with team owners in 11th-hour talks today, narrowly averting a strike.
Donald Fehr, chief of the powerful players' union, confirmed there would be no strike as he emerged from marathon negotiations at baseball's New York headquarters.
Representatives for team owners and players apparently reached a compromise on key issues regarding revenue sharing and a luxury tax, which the owners said were essential to level the playing field between big and small market teams. The deal means baseball will skirt what would have been its ninth work stoppage since 1972.
Had the talks broken down, the first game affected by a strike would have been Friday afternoon's contest between the St Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs at Chicago's Wrigley Field.
Filed by James Boylan.
