Alyssa GregoryThis is not happening. Not again.not now! Yet, as of Thursday, less than 24 hours away from the August 30th strike date set by the players, there is little chance that baseball, long held up as America’s national pastime, can avoid its ninth work stoppage since 1972.
As a die hard baseball fan who has followed his team through thick and thin (and believe me the San Diego Padres have had some mighty bad years and 2002 is no exception) it pains me to no end that baseball is willing to throw away everything-everything-because the owners and players cannot agree how to divvy up billions of dollars.
I realize that there is much animosity between the two sides as a result of years of backstabbing. The players see every negotiation as payback for the years that they were grossly underpaid by owners who treated them like dirt and traded them like cards.
On the other hand, the owners view every bargaining session as a chance to return baseball to the “good old days,” when salaries were low and profits were high. They both need to wake up and smell the coffee (they may need some coffee come Thursday night when they are trying to find a solution). The public simply will not tolerate another strike.
Youngsters once enthralled by the likes of Ken Griffey, Jr. and Frank Thomas are increasingly going gaga over the likes of Tony Hawk and Jeremy McGrath. Middle-class Americans, reeling from the recent recession, are tuning out Major League Baseball in favor of more cost effective entertainment. A strike, no matter how long it keeps players on the sidelines, will be the undoing of baseball.
Right about now I want to knock some sense into Donald Fehr and Bud Selig.
I want to sit them down and make them understand that they represent the best game ever invented. Furthermore, since they are ambassadors to the game, they have a responsibility to the fans and to the country to see that baseball continues to play strike-free.
The facts remain the same, mostly unchanged since the last strike in 1994 that the owners want limits on salaries and the players want the freedom to earn what the market will bare. While there are other issues that have soured negotiations, ranging from contraction to steroids, it is clear that in order to avert sure disaster, the sides need to bridge their immense monetary differences. In short, they need to agree on a revenue sharing and luxury tax proposal that would restore competitive balance to baseball while allowing modest growth in player salaries.
However, that is easier than it sounds. The owners are far from united on how much revenue to share. Big market teams like the Yankees and Mariners are not necessarily opposed to the current salary structure and are advocating a lower luxury tax and revenue sharing levels. On the other hand, small market teams like the Padres and the Pittsburgh Pirates are lobbying for greater revenue sharing and a more penal luxury tax. This friction between the owners makes avoiding a strike all the more necessary, because the hard-line owners will ensure a long and most likely painful work-stoppage by blocking any attempts at compromise.
Nevertheless, progress has been made. Unlike 1994 when players and owners could not even agree conceptually on a way to reign in salaries, this time they both recognize the need for reforms. In recent weeks, the players have even accepted revenue sharing and the luxury tax in principle. Furthermore, the players have accepted steroid testing and an international draft, two things that were nonnegotiable a few short months ago. Yet, as the strike date is upon us, there is no deal.
At this point I am just disgusted and alienated. The game that I grew up with is self-destructing. I don’t think I can handle it. No way. No how. For as long as I can remember, September and October signaled the time to go baseball crazy.
So now all I can do is pray, something I never do. I have to pray that this doomsday article that I have just written is a bunch of bull on Friday. I am just afraid that it is most likely the prophetic truth as our national pastime is dethroned.
STRIKE ISSUES:
Revenue sharing – a plan to force owners to share more of their revenues collectively. Both sides accept increased revenue sharing but are still bickering over the exact percentage
Luxury tax – a tax to penalize teams that spend over a certain limit. The two sides have agreed upon it in principle but disagree greatly on how to implement it
Steroid testing – a proposal to test players for performance enhancing anabolic steroids. A confidential testing program that would test all players in 2004 has been accepted by the two sides
International draft – a proposition to take all international players and put them into one centralized draft. The players have agreed to an international draft
Contraction – the concept of eliminating two or more teams to restore competitive balance to MLB. To this point the players have refused any contraction proposal