Selig tells owners to hush on labor

NEW YORK -- As baseball players and management finally got around to talking about revenue sharing Friday, baseball commissioner Bud Selig reversed course again and told owners to stop talking about labor matters in public.

Negotiators, joined by eight players from the Boston Red Sox, had what both sides called a productive session, and agreed that they were not that far apart on the amount of money they want to divide unequally among clubs from baseball's national broadcasting and licensing contracts.

They did not discuss locally generated revenue or management's desire for a luxury tax on high-payroll teams, two bigger points of contention in the talks for a labor deal to replace the contract that expired Nov. 7.

Meanwhile, team owners received a new memorandum from Selig, who earlier this summer had lifted his so-called "gag order."