A majority of the major-league owners, as many as two-thirds and perhaps more, spoke in favor of resuming negotiations with the players association–but with this condition: Bargaining will reopen, from ground zero, and the owners would push for a salary cap. And if they can’t get the cap, the owners would play for another impasse.
“We have to think about the goals we started for. We don’t want to lose sight of those goals,” said Boston’s John Harrington, chairman of management’s bargaining committee. Harrington and owners and representatives from the other teams met informally Wednesday at the Wyndham Hotel in Itasca.
Asked if a majority of the moguls favor a fresh start, Harrington replied: “Yes, they’re in favor of considering it.”
Harrington explained that the intent is to sign a long-term agreement with the players and likened the situation to entering a hospital for a test and/or surgery.
“Let’s say I’m lying on the operating table. I thought I was going for an angioplasty and I get off the table and am ready to go home. But the doctor stops me. He says what I really need is a heart transplant.
“He tells me, `If you go home tomorrow, you’ll be back here next week for another angioplasty. But if I give you a new heart, chances are you will live for another 10 years.’ “
I asked Harrington which he preferred, a Band-Aid that would soon require repair or a longer and fruitful life?
“I’m for longevity,” he replied.
But, alas, if the owners hang tough and for a cap, isn’t he fearful the players would strike again?
“There will be a concern if it would provoke another player stoppage,” Harrington said. But he said that he and many of the owners believe the players are not likely to hit the street as they did on Aug. 12 last year. As a result of the stoppage, the owners canceled the final 52 days of the regular season and all post-season play, including the World Series.
Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinnati Reds, agreed that a long-term solution, with a cap, “is very important to us. Everybody has their own idea. They want to do what’s right for the game.”
What’s right for the owners isn’t likely to be embraced by Don Fehr, head of the players’ union. Fehr has been threatening another in-season walkout if so-called meaningful negotiations don’t resume.
Even more important to him and his players is that bargaining resume with the union’s last proposal on March 30, the last day of negotiations. In rejecting the owners’ 50-percent tax, which would kick in after a team’s payroll reached $44 million, the union said it was willing to settle for a 25 percent tax after $50 million.
This has been called a luxury tax, but in effect it is a penalty against the high-spending teams. The owners are anxious to decrease the large disparity between the small- and big-market teams. The union has a different desire: It doesn’t want to decrease player salaries beyond a minimal adjustment.
What the owners prefer is a salary cap similar, if not identical, to the procedure that has been in effect in professional basketball and football. This would not only put a lid on player salaries, but would neutralize the salary arbitration procedure and free-agent signings, the twin engines that have driven player salaries to unprecedented heights. If the 1994 season had been played to a finish, 750 to 800 players would have received an aggregate salary of almost $1 billion.
Acting commissioner Bud Selig, in explaining why the meeting was necessary, said: “I wanted all the owners to hear in a very candid manner what I hear every day. The essential purpose was for each club to articulate its views. I would call it a catharsis.”
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Then he added, in obvious support of a long-term settlement, “We’ve got to get a deal and get it done right so it lasts a long time.”
The owners will reassemble on June 6 in Minneapolis for a regularly scheduled quarterly meeting.
Selig hedged when asked if he believed the players would strike a second time in response to the management demand for a salary cap.
“I’ve heard that view that the players are not likely to strike. Many have expressed that opinion. But I take nothing for granted.
From outward appearances, it seemed to be a somber meeting. But Bill Bartholomay, the Chicago insurance executive who represents the Atlanta Braves, drew a laugh from a cluster of reporters when he explained the severity of management’s financial condition.
“Things are so bad they took away the chocolate chip cookies.” Then, holding his morsel aloft for all to see, he said, “We’re down to peanut butter.”