In an effort to restart collective bargaining talks with the CFL, the Players Association submitted a new four-year offer to the league Monday, TSN learned Monday night. The unions new offer included reductions on several financial proposals from ones made in its previous offer made last week. But the league swiftly rejected the new numbers, pushing the players closer to considering a work stoppage. In a memo obtained by TSN, the players financial proposals included a $5.2 million salary cap in 2014 ($4.8 million minimum) that grew to $6.0 million ($5.4 million minimum) after four seasons. Minimum salaries would start at $50,000 dollars in 2014, and grow to $53,000 by 2017. Last week, the players offered a $5.8 million salary cap that would grow 3% annually. But the crux of the unions financial recommendations was a "Revenue Protection Clause" created to set a threshold to renegotiate the salary cap if the CFLs aggregate revenues drastically increased. In the third year of a new deal, the players would want to renegotiate the cap if league revenues increased $12 million from the previous year. In the players newest offer, the threshold would be set at $18 million. The union also revised pension contributions ($4,000 per player and $4,000 per club), and "Compensation for Veterans for Increase in Salary Expenditure Cap" set at $8,500 for veterans and $1,500 for rookies. And the union maintained its desire to discuss other points, including practice times and numbers of contact practices, and salary protection and medical treatment if players are injured late in season. At the beginning of the memo the Players Association describes its offer as "more favourable." Last week, the CFL offered a $5 million cap and a threshold to reopen discussions on the salary cap limit if league-wide revenues increased by $27 million from the previous year, also in the third season of a new CBA. Hours before the current CBA expired, commissioner Mark Cohon called it the leagues "final" offer. The CFL has evidently not moved from that position, and quickly rejected the players offer. "[The CFL] indicated that they see no point in meeting unless we are prepared to accept their offer," reads the Players Associations memo. "It is obvious to your Negotiating Committee that notwithstanding our effort to resolve this matter, the only possible way of convincing them that they should reconsider their position will be with a work stoppage." The Players Associations memo closes by stating players will be advised what the unions next move is once strike ballots from Calgary and Edmonton are counted. 76ers Jerseys China . While he was away, it was the division-rival Baltimore Orioles conducting a little business of their own, scooping up Ubaldo Jimenez on Monday evening to a reported four-year, $50-million contract. Clarence Weatherspoon Jersey . Osasunas Alvaro Cejudo drove the ball onto the crossbar in the fifth minute and his team squandered several long-range strikes before he was denied one-on-one by goalkeeper Jaime Jimenez in the 50th. https://www.cheap76ers.com/716e-toni-kukoc-jersey-76ers.html .com) - Australian Open champion Li Na, former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova and former world No. James Ennis III Jersey . Blown save in the ninth inning? No problem. Dikembe Mutombo Jersey . -- A 25-year-old freelance journalist from British Columbia was formally charged on Thursday with a felony, five days after she was arrested in the United States over allegations she threatened to kill her hockey player boyfriend.If one ripple from the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations means baseball prospects get off the island and into the major leagues without payoffs to smugglers and threats from kidnappers, its hard to see the downside.Just dont expect too much, too soon. Barely two hours after President Barack Obamas dramatic announcement Wednesday in Washington, both MLB and its players union acknowledged as much in statements.We will keep our clubs informed if this different direction may impact the manner in which they conduct business on issues related to Cuba, MLB said.We remain hopeful that todays announcement will lead to further positive developments, the union said.Lets hope so, considering how few positive developments have occurred before now. There were 25 Cuban-born players in the big leagues this past season, the best of which is arguably Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig. The story of how he finally got there, after four failed attempts to leave Cuba, involved a boat trip, a detour where he was held hostage in a Mexican motel room, repeated extortion threats and crossing the U.S. border illegally.On Tuesday, South Florida businessman Gilberto Suarez pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy to smuggle Puig out in return for a sizable cut of his multimillion-dollar salary.Suarez was the second man this year to enter a guilty plea related to the smuggling of a Cuban baseball player into the U.S. Last month, 41-year-old Eliezer Lazo was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for conspiring to smuggle 1,000 Cubans, among them Texas Rangers outfielder Leonys Martin. Sadly, stories like Puigs unsavoury and sometimes life-threatening journey differs from so many others only in the details.Cuba has been turning out world-class athletes — and not just ballplayers — for more than a century. But since the 1959 revolution, most have stayed put.Track stars and multiple medallists such as Alberto Juantorena and Javier Sotomayor took star turns on the Olympic stage, but never reaped rewards that were commensurate with their talents. So, too, did heavyweights Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon, two of only three boxers to win gold medals at three Olympics and considered among the greatest amateurs ever. But neither turned pro.Stevenson was so smooth that a fight against Muhammad Ali was often hyped and loudly ddebated when both were near their prime, but never came off.dddddddddddd And some boxing observers think Savon, who succeeded Stevenson, was definitely the better of the two.But baseball was the stage where Cubas athletes shined brightest. Its version of the Big Red Machine dominated the international scene from the 1940s on, even as team officials thinned out the ranks for potential defectors and conducted bed checks with a zealousness the Cuban army would have admired.But after back-to-back gold medals in Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996) — and a raft of defections in spite of the dangers — the cupboard was nearly empty. The team Cuba brought to Sydney for the 2000 Games was largely the same it had sent to the previous two Olympics, as well as every important international competition in between. It was old by any measure and only three players on the squad were under 25 at the time — young enough to make the risk seem worthwhile. Around the same time, half-brothers and defectors Livan and Orlando El Duque Hernandez were pitching for the Giants and Yankees in preparation for the major league playoffs a month down the road.That Cuban team lost the gold-medal game 4-0 to a U.S. team composed largely of young pro prospects and aging castoffs, and only so much has changed since. Many of the best players, such as Puig, Jose Fernandez and Jose Abreu, still find ways to escape. Most of those establish residency outside the U.S. in order to become free agents not covered by MLBs amateur draft. While that ruse often results in big deals, MLB is already hatching plans to get rid of the exemption and make such players part of an international draft by 2017.Making the flow of ballplayers more orderly and less dangerous would benefit just about everyone in the game. Theres even talk at the moment of MLB teams opening baseball academies in Cuba modeled on similar programs already up and running in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, two nations that are providing a big infusion of talent. But until the leaders of two nations that have spent more than a half-century trying to torment one another prove they can co-operate as well, talk is all it is.___Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke. ' ' '