Baseball Players to Strike Aug. 30 if No Deal Made

[John Corn]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major League Baseball players will begin a strike on Aug. 30 if they cannot reach a new labor agreement with team owners, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Sources told the newspaper that, although the strike date could change, players learned during a union executive board meeting in Chicago on Monday that if a strike date is announced it would be Aug. 30

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=2&cid=578&u=/nm/20020814/ts_nm/mlb_strike_dc_2

[Pete K.]

Wait a minute...didn't Don Fehr say the union
reps would meet Friday by conference call and
revisit the issue of setting a strike date?
Reuters is probably correct is saying August
30 is the date being considered but I'll bet
you'll soon hear denials of this report from the
union.
In any event...if they walk, I'll forget about MLB
for good.

[James_F]

Well the players say that they are close to an agreement with the owners. I can only hope!

[kmccoach]

I know the owners want to make a profit. That's why they are in business. How can the players justify these outrageous salaries when anyone of us would play the game for the minimum. It makes me sick how greedy people can be.

Keith

[James_F]

Hey, if the owners don't want to pay them that then don't. If an owner has the money to do so, then they should be able to. A salary cap would kill the game.

[Bills41]

Explain how a salary cap would "kill" the game. It seems to work okay for the NFL and NBA.

[Bills41]

The "average" baseball player's salary is now 2.4 million dollars per year.

[James_F]

Oh yea, I want any team to have a chance to win. That rewards teams that work hard at building themselves. The Diamondbacks spent money correctly and have won a world series. The devil rays spend money badly and now are worth nothing. Why should the diamondbacks, braves, giants, yankees pay for bad teams. Can the diamondbacks keep under the salary cap and have Johnson and Shilling??? Why should they give up good players? A cap in baseball wouldn't work.

[Geronimo]

A salary cap would CHANGE the game. It changed the other sports as awell. But I do not think anyone knows if it would kill it or help it.

[James_F]

That fact that any team can win in any given year in the NFL has ruined the sport. That is my opinion. What happened to the dynasty? Its gone. :(

[Timco]

Dynasties are over-rated IMHO. Who wants to see the damn Yankees win every year? Dynasties can still be made. Look at the Lakers...

[James_F]

Uh, Diamondbacks won last year. Therefore the system works. Why change it?

[Geronimo]

Again james there is no right or wrong here. I mean if the Diamondbacks one because of on field talent and management skill they may still win. After all it takes skill to figure out how to build a team with this setup----just as there was an adjustment when free agency came in and some said that would ruin the game.


We will see what happens. And hopefully that will not involve a work stoppage.

I think the players have some valid concerns---like the potential loss of 50 jobs out of 750 if contraction occurs----but salary is not among them. THey are foing well in that department.

[Adam Richey]

Does anybody know all of the reasons why they are setting the strike? I know one of them is a salary cap, but I'm sure there is a lot more than meets the eye.

[James_F]

I don't care about contraction, I just don't want to see any limits on what owners can do or pay players. If a team can't survive in that kind of market, make the owner sell. Whoever owns the KC Royals should give up the team, they don't seem to have any wish to put a productive team on the field. :nono:

[Maniacal1]

The August 30 date sounds very suspicious to me. MLB players are paid on the 15th and 30th of the month. It would make no sense for them to strike on a payday.

[Bills41]

They play a kids game and are very well rewarded with the average salary 2.4 million dollars. I say a slary cap or revenue sharing is needed to level the playing field. There are lots of fans who don't like seeing the Yankees, etc win it every year and your team has a minimum chance to win it all each year. What does it show to win it all because you buy up all the top players you can? You aren't winning because you coached the players and developed them, you are winning because you have the money to buy the top players. What does that prove? Where is the competition?

[Bills41]

Sorry for the typo -- salary!

[Ryan]

The business model of MLB at this time can not continue to support 30 teams. It must change.

Fans will not continue to pay as much as they do to attend games if only a handful of teams can compete. It does not matter if a team can not compete due to it's own financial mismanagement or player-personnel mismanagement. Fans do not care what the excuse for their team's poor performace is. They just want it fixed.

And I thought it had been widely reported that the Diamondbacks had spent themselves deeply into the red? Were those reports wrong? Did I miss that somewhere?

The Marlins bought a World Series a few years ago and had to immediately blow up the teams and eventually sold. That doesn't sound like a championship team is necessarily a great busniess asset.

[John Corn]

Regardless of what the issues are this time around, the likelihood of another strike just highlights the sheer incompetence of people on both sides of the negotiating table.

In the history of the game, there have been 8 labor negotiations, and 8 work stoppages. This could make it 9 for 9. Exactly how bad do negotiators have to be to come up with that kind of record?

It's pathetic. And the biggest problem is that it's been going on for so long that now both sides see stoppages as part of the negotiation process, rather than a last resort.

I just hope that, for once, a strike is averted. But I don't have a lot of faith in anyone who's doing the negotiating.

[Chris Blount]

The heck with pro baseball. I'll go see a local minor league game any day of the week. Great baseball and MUCH cheaper.

[Jacob S]

I am sure the minor leagues would LOVE this, because they would get the spotlight, and a lot of those that want to go pro can be put on a list and when enough can go pro, they can redo this the right way preventing anything like this from happening again, and replace those that want to strike.

[James_F]

Hey, if Major League teams get contracted, then there will be some Minor League teams going out of business. You can't have one without the other....

[Geronimo]

Well each team could have more affiliates. There used to be a lot more minor league teams.

[Jacob S]

Well in with the new, out with the old, as some players go PRO to the majors other new ones will come into the minors. Those that will not participate in the strike would remain PRO therefore not all PRO players would have to be replaced.

The only problem is when the strike is over, what would happen to those PRO players that went on strike? Create even more teams just to go on strike again? Could they function with a smaller amount of teams when a strike would occur with those teams having those players that chose not to go on strike? Maybe they could have some games with some of the best minors to come in and play with the majors and this be an opportunity for them. That could get very interesting.

[James_F]

Players in the minors would be future major league players. They wouldn't cross the line....

[cnsf]

I'll play if they ask..... :D

[Mark Holtz]

Maybe it's just me....

The last time there was a strike, the attitude that I saw from the owners and players was that they didn't care for the fans at all. Imagine that... offending the very people who support your sport.

I don't watch baseball games on TV. I do, however, watch the sports reports. And, it seems like the stadiums are less sold out... even more so for the weekday games.

Plus, some of the antics that the players who are paid millions is often disgraceful. How many millionaire players can you name who got into trouble with the law, family trouble, drug trouble, gambling trouble, etc. etc. etc.

Then, you have George Steinbremmer who creates the YES network, and milking the sport for what it's worth. When you have the same team winning the title over and over, it becomes less fun.

Look at what has happened in the NBA. The ratings were higher for the Kings-Lakers conference final than they were for the Lakers-Nets final.

If there is a strike, then America's former pasttime will become passe. And, instead of two teams contracting, we'll see more.

[James_F]

Hey the Diamondbacks won the title last year, remember???? And they just might win it again this year.... The system works.

[xxxx]

9 strikes in 30 years - yah right

[James_F]

So what? If I have another world championship here in Phoenix, whats wrong with that? Why would I want to change the system?