1 President Clinton refused to take no for an answer Sunday when Major League Baseball's negotiators said they couldn't agree on a deal, ordering the sides back to the bargaining table for one more day of talks.
2 Five hours after mediator W.J. Usery announced the sides were too far apart to hope for a settlement, Clinton demanded players and owners try again.
3 But instead of bargaining, the sides immediately began barking. The union ended its 45-day signing freeze and owners responded by prohibiting teams from signing players to contracts. The actions led to the kind of acrimony that has marked the 25-month-long talks.
4 'To throw this kind of a bomb into the negotiations suggests pretty clearly that the intent is to have the bomb explode,' union head Donald Fehr said. He called it 'perhaps the most provocative step they could take in a desperate attempt to break off negotiations.'
5 Even before the renewed squabbling, Usery met with Clinton in the Oval Office for 45 minutes and reported that four days of talks had been futile. Usery then returned to the negotiations and said the president wanted another report by 5 p.m. Monday (2200 GMT).
6 'It's not at all clear that we can get them to settle,' Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry said, 'but we are hopeful.'
7 While the president could propose special legislation to Congress, White House aides said he wants the sides to work it out themselves.
8 Players and owners have made little progress since the strike started Aug. 12, and are still billions of dollars apart.
9 Labor Secretary Robert Reich attended the White House meeting and stood at Usery's side during a news conference, dramatizing Clinton's message.
10 'He emphasized the urgency of bringing this problem to a rapid settlement,' Reich said.
11 Workouts start a week from Thursday, and administration officials have said they are against the owners' plan to use strikebreakers. The regular season starts April 2.
12 'Time is running out on us,' said Usery, who was appointed special mediator by Clinton last Oct. 14. 'We all know the effect this is having on our nation. It's absolutely essential we try to get baseball playing again.'
13 Owners want a new economic system that will control players' salaries, which averaged nearly dlrs 1.2 million in 1994. The union, intent on preserving its gains of the past two decades, walked out to fight off the owners' demand to cap costs.

Even before the renewed squabbling , Usery met with Clinton in the Oval Office for 45 minutes and reported that four days of talks had been futile . Usery then returned to the negotiations and said the president wanted another report by 5 p . m . Monday ( 2200 GMT ) .
wanted another report by 5 p . m . Monday
What was the result at 5pm