Others who heard his report on the status of talks with management lawyers suggested that there indeed were problems.

But this may backfire, said Mary Dollarhide, a management lawyer.

Rob Manfred, a management lawyer, declined to comment yesterday when he was asked about that possibility.

A common justification that management lawyers offer for this monitoring is fear of liability for sexual harassment.

If individual clubs didn't want to operate whatever number that was agreed on, management lawyers said, baseball would find someone to run them.

Many business groups and management lawyers back the administration and say the rules will cause few workers to lose eligibility.

Labor union officials and management lawyers agree on the answers, up to a point.

But one management lawyer acknowledged there is some concern among league officials because "they don't know if Gourdine has the authority to make a deal."

He said Legal Aid's 187 management lawyers would step in to handle some pending cases.

Further, the owner said, union lawyers have told management lawyers they were not ready to make a deal.