There?s a pretty good disparity between views that are primarily economic. We did reach a point where we declared impasse and imposed our last, best and final offer.

We're really just replicating the system we already had in place. We at this point have made our last, best and final offer. I don't really want to speak for our negotiating team on what they'll do in the future. That's really speculative. But we are prepared to just move forward in the system we have.

With a strike, we have the right to replace them and we?re not going to risk losing any games or risk our major-league partners? interest in development.

We have hired umpires to work the games. All the games will go on. Qualified umpires are going to be out on the field and we?re going to move forward.

By the end of '06 we're going to have a pretty clear picture of whether or not it's succeeding or failing, ... And success will be dependent upon a government that's representative and a capacity to govern in terms of security.

A-Rod is pretty special,