Many letters and callers from the four corners on the baseball strike. I have tried to explain but have exhausted my so-called expertise; there is nothing left in my quiver. Then I heard from Dr. Adolph Nachman, a longtime reader who said, “I agree the season is gone. No World Series. But what happens next year?”
And so for the good doctor and all the true-blue fans, this column will plunge ahead.
On or about Nov. 1, on the assumption there will not be a miracle settlement long before then, the owners will declare an impasse. This done, they can put a new Basic Agreement into effect that would include all their proposals on the bargaining table.
If the owners, at any time, retreat from their demand for a salary cap and/or revenue sharing before Nov. 1, their watered-down version would go into effect. Only the last proposal can be implemented, which is probably the primary reason why the owners have refused to move from their position.
Thereafter, it’s all conjecture. The players have two options: remain on strike or return to the field. More than likely, the players will remain firm through the first month or two of next season. One owner has said that if the players splinter and half of them throw in the towel, they might re-open.
“It would be tough decision,” this owner explained. “We would have to be certain the fans would accept this as a major-league game. We also would have to consider the star value of the players willing to play, not just on one particular club but on all 28 teams. I doubt there would be much interest if the Yankees are playing Detroit’s Triple-A farm team.”
I doubt these decisions would be necessary. If as many as 40 or 50 percent of the players are anxious to return, the strike would be over.
Charles Comiskey, the third-generation White Sox front-office chief who lost his shot at control of the team when Bill Veeck took over before the 1959 season, was also among the callers and expressed surprise the players have been willing to lose so much of their pay.
“I don’t think they understood the risk they were taking,” Comiskey said. “From what I’ve been reading, a lot of them figured it would be over in two weeks.”
That seemed to be the original belief, that the owners would do a hasty el foldo. The strike is now in its fourth week. Saturday was the 23rd day. The players have lost $100 million in salaries.
“How much has Jack McDowell lost?” Comiskey asked.
Through Saturday, it was $666,120 by my calculations.
“That’s a big chunk,” Comiskey said. “How does he feel about it?”
I told him I didn’t know. The players haven’t been talking.
“What’s he losing every day?”
It comes to $28,961.
Comiskey was silent. After a lengthy pause, he said, “That’s probably more than Ted Lyons ever made in any one season.”
Lyons, a Hall-of-Fame pitcher, spent his entire 21-year career with the White Sox. He holds the club record for victories, 230, and was at his peak during the Depression years.
“What about Don Fehr, the guy who heads the union?” Comiskey asked. “I don’t suppose he’s losing anything.”
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Wrong. Union officials are not on salary during the strike. If Fehr is figuring his salary on a 183-day season, same as the players, he’s losing $5,191 a day.
There was also a fax from Bob Locker, the former White Sox relief pitcher. Now in the real-estate business in Lafayette, Calif., Locker is continuing his campaign to allow pension benefits for the surviving pre-1947 players.
Locker has asked the owners and Players Association to reward these players with a $500 monthly benefit package. Locker says only about 200 players would be eligible and estimates the annual cost at $1 million.
“Weighed against the total contribution to the pension plan in excess of $50 million a year, I don’t see how this situation can be ignored any longer,” Locker wrote. “The average age of these old-timers is in the 70s. They’re not going to be around much longer.”
Locker also advocates a Florida retirement home for indigent players.
So it goes in the grand old game.