Minimum Salary Increased

NEW YORK â€”  Players and owners agreed to a $100,000 increase in baseball’s minimum salary Thursday, making more progress on minor issues as labor negotiations enter a key weekend.

Faced with the possibility the union’s executive board might set a strike date when it meets Monday in Chicago, both sides got three items out of the way and prepared to deal with larger issues.

They set the minimum at $300,000 starting next year, and agreed to increases in the benefits plan that allow most 10-year veterans who played after 1970 to earn pensions of about $160,000 annually, the federal maximum. Also, they agreed to shorten the period for teams to fund deferred salaries.

A day after baseball players ended decades of opposition to mandatory drug testing by agreeing to be checked for illegal steroids, management worked on a counterproposal it intended to present today.

Increased revenue sharing and a luxury tax on high payrolls--the key economic issues--were not discussed.

The Houston Astros became the latest team to authorize the union’s executive board to set a strike deadline.

Players, however, haven’t reached a consensus on whether a date should be set.

“It depends on what potentially happens the rest of this week, hoping that progress continues to be made,� Boston’s Tony Clark, the AL player representative, said after his team met with union head Donald Fehr.

Management labor lawyer Rob Manfred said negotiators intended to work through the weekend. Until now, talks have been limited to weekdays.

“Whenever you are doing an agreement, there are points that become focus points in terms of attempting to reach an agreement to avoid this or that happening,� Manfred said. “Clearly, the parties have focused on this meeting Monday as a point in the process. We’ve worked hard against that deadline. Both sides have.�