"POSITIVE AIR" TO BASEBALL TALKS?

     "There actually is a positive air to the preliminary talks
between lawyers for the owners and the players" in the baseball
labor dispute, according to Peter Gammons of the BOSTON GLOBE.
Owners claim that last week's two meetings "were the best two
days yet."  Gammons reports that Red Sox CEO John Harrington
thinks that acting MLB Commissioner Bud Selig's "reluctance to go
right back to the table in May ... has resulted in a cooling-off
that has left each side realizing that we can't go through
another strike and with a respect for each other's position that
didn't exist when talks broke down in Rye, NY, last December."
Harrington reportedly thinks "serious discussions can be carried
on" during the playoffs and World Series and that the deal "can
get done shortly thereafter" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/20).