MLB players withdraw free agency shift as labor talks resume

By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Locked-out Major League Baseball players removed the first of three major obstacles to a labor contract, withdrawing their proposal for more liberalized free agency when the sides met face-to-face for the first time since the management lockout began Dec. 1. The union also modified its revenue-sharing proposal, asking the amount shifted from big markets to smaller ones be cut by what it said was $30 million, a figure management disputed. Another meeting in the contentious talks is scheduled Tuesday, the first consecutive sessions since the bargaining collapse last fall that led to baseball’s ninth work stoppage, its first since 1995.