MLB OWNERS PLAY HARDBALL IN LABOR NEGOTIATIONS

     MLB team owners want "substantial" progress in labor
negotiations with the players' union by August 1, or, they say,
they will go back to court for a second attempt at unilaterally
imposing a new economic system for baseball, according to the
WASHINGTON POST.  According to sources, owners' negotiator Randy
Levine "delivered" this message to MLBPA chief Donald Fehr at the
All-Star Game.  The owners previously had set the All-Star break
as a deadline, but "apparently now" believe a settlement is
"within reach" (Mark Maske, WASHINGTON POST, 7/12).  If MLB
owners go to court, they would ask U.S. District Judge Sonia
Sotomayor to declare an impasse in bargaining and implement their
latest proposal.  This "might cause" players to respond with
another strike.  Levine and Fehr may meet again today, and both
declined to comment (AP/HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/12).