MLB: No payroll dangers for next week

NEW YORK - Paychecks won&#39;t be bouncing to baseball players next week like so many wild pitches heading to the backstop. <br> <br> A day after commissioner Bud Selig said a team was in danger of not making payroll next week, his top aide insisted any financial problems had passed. <br> <br> Selig did not identify the team during a Wednesday interview with several newspapers, and also said a second unidentified club had so much debt it might not be able to finish the season. <br> <br> A top official of a major league team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays had cash-flow problems earlier this year, but both teams denied any financial difficulties. <br> <br> ``There are teams that are continuing to work very hard to meet all of their expenses that come due,&#39;&#39; Bob DuPuy, baseball&#39;s chief operating officer, said Thursday. ``Whatever immediate issues there were with one or two clubs have been resolved in the short term.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Baseball teams can borrow up to $72 million each through a line of credit backed by the sport&#39;s central fund, which collects money from national broadcasting and licensing contracts. <br> <br> A high-ranking baseball official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that before the June 15 payroll, a team was having financial difficulty. The team, which the official didn&#39;t identify, secured additional credit from its bank after baseball provided a letter stating that a payment from the central fund would be made to the team in July, the official said. <br> <br> ``As far as I know, as far as I&#39;m concerned, it&#39;s not the Devil Rays,&#39;&#39; Tampa Bay general manager Chuck LaMar said. ``All I know is I&#39;m not aware of any type of loan or bailout from major league baseball.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Tigers president Dave Dombrowski refused to say if baseball had provided any specific assurances to the team&#39;s bank, saying, ``We don&#39;t get into our personal finances at all.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Dombrowski said the Tigers were not in danger of failing to have enough cash to pay players next week. <br> <br> ``We&#39;re going to meet our payroll,&#39;&#39; he said. ``I can assure that they&#39;ll get paid on the 15th.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Selig, trying to gain concessions from the players&#39; association, has spent more than 1 1/2 years saying that baseball has widespread financial difficulties. Union head Donald Fehr seemed surprised by Selig&#39;s remarks. <br> <br> ``It was sort of an odd thing to see said publicly,&#39;&#39; Fehr said. ``And, hopefully, it&#39;s an issue that&#39;s behind us at this point.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Bargaining for a new labor contract, recessed since June 27, was to have resumed Thursday in New York, but the sides agreed to scrap the session and meet Friday. <br> <br> The sides are far apart on increased revenue sharing among teams, the owners&#39; proposal for a luxury tax to slow payroll growth, random testing for steroids and other drugs, extending the amateur draft worldwide, and management&#39;s attempt to change salary arbitration rules and eligibility. <br> <br> Players fear owners might try to unilaterally change work rules this fall. While the union hasn&#39;t set a strike date, the players are expected to call for a walkout in August or September if there is no progress in talks. It would be baseball&#39;s ninth work stoppage and first since 1994-95. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s hard to quantify progress in bargaining. I think we could say we&#39;ve got a long way to go,&#39;&#39; Fehr said. ``But what typically happens in collective bargaining is that you talk for a long time and then somehow, someway - usually in a way you don&#39;t anticipate - a breakthrough happens and then a lot of things sort of dovetail. <br> <br> ``We aren&#39;t at the point yet, and the object is to stay at it until we are.&#39;&#39;