NEW YORK -- Baseball's top labor lawyer thinks players don't have to strike to protect themselves if the season ends without a collective bargaining agreement. Union head Donald Fehr laughed at the remark.

''I don't buy this theory that they have no choice but to go on strike,'' management lawyer Rob Manfred said Tuesday after another day of bargaining produced little progress. ''They clearly have a choice. If we don't have an agreement in the offseason, they have responses available to them.''

Players fear that without an agreement, management would lock them out or change work rules. Manfred said even if those things happen, players could fight them, as they did during the 232-day work stoppage in 1994-95, which ended when a federal judge found owners changed work rules illegally.

''If Rob really believes that, and I don't really believe he does, then he is living in a dream world,'' Fehr said. ''We live in the real world of NBA players, who were locked out immediately after their last agreement.''

A strike, while depriving players of their salary for the final weeks of the season, would put more pressure on owners. It not only would threaten to wipe out the World Series for the second time in nine years, it would depress ticket sales for 2003.

Negotiators for the sides met twice for a total of about 3½ hours, trying to avoid the sport's ninth work stoppage since 1972. The primary topic of the first session was revenue sharing, with owners wanting a large increase in the amount of locally generated money that is shared by all teams. Management also wants a new formula that would be less favorable to the clubs with the highest and lowest revenue.

''In some respects, the conversation was productive,'' said Gene Orza, the union's No. 2 official. ''We got a little closer, but there are still significant hurdles we have to find a way to get through.''

Fehr met in New York with players from the Houston Astros, the 26th team on his tour of the 30 clubs, then went to Dallas to meet with the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers.

Fehr said the union's executive board most likely will have a conference call next week and could hold a meeting the week of Aug. 12. A strike date could be set following Fehr's tour, and dates from mid-August to mid-September have been mentioned for a walkout.

''I don't feel like setting a strike date is imminent, though it is probably necessary in order to get things solved,'' Houston's Brad Ausmus said. ''I think we might be even closer to solving this than the owners think we are. But it's a fluid situation, and it changes daily.''

Players seem reluctant to set a strike deadline but also appear to be preparing for a walkout. They keep looking for breakthroughs at the talks.

''Some progress has been made, and everybody is just pushing along trying to get something done,'' said Atlanta's Tom Glavine, the NL player representative.

The economic issues are revenue sharing, the owners' desire for a luxury tax that would slow salary growth and an expansion of the amateur draft from the United States and Canada to worldwide.

''This is a three-legged stool in terms of a deal,'' Manfred said, adding that the owners' desire for mandatory random drug-testing also was important.

Management's revenue-sharing proposal is to increase shared local revenue from 20 percent to 50 percent. If it had been in place last year, the amount redirected from the high-revenue teams to the low-revenue clubs would have increased from $167 million to $298 million. Players have proposed an increase to $228 million.

Not much time has been devoted in talks to the owners' proposal for a 50 percent luxury tax on the portions of payrolls above $98 million.

''We know it's out there, but they also know our view of it,'' Orza said. ''That's going to be a very thorny subject at some point, but they understand that. We understand how much they've invested in the issue, but they understand how difficult it is for the players' association to bite into the issue.''

Both sides appear to be putting that subject off until the final stages of talks.

''I think we have a good idea of where they are,'' Manfred said.