I wish someone would help me with this. The ballplayers have been insisting it’s impossible to negotiate with the owners because they can’t be trusted and are not men of good faith.
I find this difficult to understand because management’s primary obligation is to meet the payroll. And so far as I know, all the 700-plus members of the Major League Baseball Players Association receive their checks every two weeks, on time and in full.
If there had been a single default, we would have heard about it. To me, there is no better example of good faith.
This is mentioned now because the players and owners are in the midst of their quadrennial stalemate. Essentially, the owners want the players to agree to a salary cap. They are willing to maintain the existing structure, with future increases commensurate with the club’s annual earnings.
The players want a free market, without a ceiling, and insist no self-respecting union would help curb salaries. In other words, the sky is the limit. If, down the line, an owner or owners want to pay a star player $10 million a year, he should be allowed this pleasure without restriction.
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Dick Ravitch, the owners’ principal negotiator, will meet again Wednesday in New York with Don Fehr, the executive director of the players association. Fehr has indicated that if there is no movement, he will announce a strike date Thursday.
“I don’t see how a stoppage can be avoided,” a source familiar with the situation said Monday. “Both sides are firmly locked into their positions. It’s too late for them to change now.”
If so, they would be shooting themselves in the foot. To curtail what has been an unusually exciting season would be suicidal.
But there could be a way out. The owners, for example, could agree, as they did last year, to extend the existing collective-bargaining contract for another season, through 1995.
I asked a mogul of long acquaintance if this would be likely.
“I doubt it,” he said. “It would result in another increase in salaries and make it tougher to make a deal the next time.”
I offered another possibility: The owners could agree to lower the free-agency requirement from six years of major-league service to three or four years in exchange for the elimination of salary arbitration.
“Won’t fly,” he insisted. “Salary arbitration has killed us. But if we can keep a player for only his first three years, there wouldn’t be any sense in maintaining a farm system. There would be too much player movement, 28 teams of vagabond players. It would destroy fan identification.”
Apparently the only way out would be if the owners yield on their demand for a salary cap. So it’s likely to come down to a test of wills between Ravitch and Fehr.
I am reminded of what John Gaherin said long ago. This was when Gaherin represented the owners, sitting on the opposite side of the table from Marvin Miller.
Gaherin wasn’t necessarily speaking of their confrontation but revealed when it gets down to the 11th hour one negotiator says to the other:
“If you save my face, I’ll save your butt.”
I doubt Ravitch and Fehr have reached this point, but there is little doubt that neither side wants a shutdown. Collectively, the players would suffer a daily salary loss of $4.5 million.
If there is a stoppage and the playoffs and World Series are canceled, the owners would lose about twice as much. But once they take a hit, the situation is reversed. The owners could impose their current proposal or any new agreement to their liking.
The players know history is on their side. In each of the last seven stoppages, with one minor exception, the owners have caved in. Obviously, the players are confident of extending their winning streak. But better than anyone, they should know that nobody wins ’em all.
The owners are prepared as never before. They have amended their voting procedure. Before, the majority ruled. This time, a three-fourths vote of 21-7 will be necessary for a settlement.
Fehr has said he is not worried. If it were me, I’d be concerned. He could be taking a considerable risk. On Thursday, perhaps, Fehr will announce the final tally on the players’ strike authorization vote.
I would guess that about 95 percent of the players have approved. Publicly they must stand united. Anything less is a sign of weakness. But the indications are that as much as 25 or 30 percent of his membership, and especially the 192 players earning in excess of $2 million a year, doesn’t have the stomach for a strike.
And if there is a long strike, extending into next season, the owners don’t have to continue meeting a payroll. No more good faith.