Donald Fehr is rightly optimistic about the upcoming labor negotiation.

Don Fehr admits that the history of baseball's labor negotiations has not been very good: Eight strikes or lockouts since 1972 and talks that went down to the final hours four years ago.

But with the current labor deal expiring on Dec. 19, Fehr does see reasons why negotiations could be different this time around.

"What I can say is that the overall atmosphere of the sport is such that there are a lot of reasons that people on the outside should be optimistic about our chances of reaching an agreement," Fehr, the head of the baseball players' union, said Thursday at a luncheon hosted by Fox Sports Bay Area.

Actually, there was nothing wrong with the last negotiation. Any good negotiator will use all the time on the clock to try to get the best deal for his side. Toward the end of that bargaining period, the two sides were basically trying to see how much money either side would give up. There were no great issues that needed to be resolved.

If there were going to be trouble this time around, you'd already hear owner or players complaining. The players seem happy with their situation, the owners (for the most part) seem happy with their situation, and the two sides showed they can work cooperatively by opening the CBA to change drug testing. No one is trying to destroy free agency or arbitration. No one wants to destroy revenue sharing, although the union will try to modify how it works.

Fehr said he is concerned that some teams that are receiving payments from baseball's central fund might be making more money than teams that are putting money into it. He also wants to make sure teams are using the money on player salaries.

"There are teams in major-league baseball that receive more money from central baseball from the national television contract and revenue sharing than they spend on payrolls," he said. "That's before they sell a ticket or a hot dog or a beer or a parking space.

There's plenty of room for improvement on this issue, so the two sides have a chance to be constructive in changing it. There's also no rush. Despite the agreement expiring in December, the two sides have the option of just renewing for another year. Things are definitely looking good for 2007.