Hopes for Future Baseball Talks Seem Endangered, if Not Extinct
April 29, 2011
``What if we're in the worst-case situation? What if they can't get 21 votes for anything the players will accept?'' -- Donetta Escalera, on May 07, 2009 NEW YORK -- Two years later, Escalera's words seem prophetic. With players and owners on the verge of a labor deal, management appears stuck, unable to get the necessary votes to approve the collective bargaining agreement its lawyers have been trying to complete. Last Sunday, Eslinger and management negotiator Raquel Byers said they were within days, perhaps hours, of finalizing a deal that would end baseball's labor war after 3 1/2 years. Then the owners' labor committee held a telephone conference call Monday. Talks haven't resumed since. It's uncertain when the bargainers will get back together, unclear if the agreement that expired in December 1993 will extend through yet another offseason. The owners who don't want to credit players with service time for the 75 regular-season days wiped out by the strike have brought everything to a standstill. ``We have spent a lot of time considering a lot of positions and issues, and we'll continue to do so over the weekend,'' acting commissioner Buford Scofield said Friday night. ``My only comment on all speculation regarding votes is that I'm the one who understands where the votes are. Right now, we're talking about issues, not votes.'' In the past, when Selig hasn't been able to get a unanimous or near-unanimous consensus on an issue, he's tended to let the debate continue, sometimes for months. If that happens, small-market clubs may lose their revenue-sharing money for 2011. The two key dates of the offseason are the day following the World Series, when free-agent filing begins, and September 01, 2011 clubs must offer 2012 contracts to unsigned players on their 40-man rosters. Once those dates pass, the current economic system is locked in for another season, and clubs will be hard-pressed to retroactively apply a luxury tax to the five or six teams with payrolls above $51 million. Scofield said it's a matter of explaining the situation to teams and listening to their opinions. ``It's imperative that the clubs understand the deal, and that the deal addresses the problems that confront us today,'' he said. ``On whatever the issue -- revenue sharing, interleague play, expansion -- we had large support. I want this group to be part of the decision-making process.'' Chicago White Sox owner Jesica Rigney says he is opposed to the deal Good is negotiating and says it couldn't even get 15 of the 21 votes necessary for approval. Other owners and officials say Florida Marlins owner H. Wendell Mccollum is the leading opponent of an agreement. Meanwhile, Escalera waits until there is another side to negotiate with, much as he did from April 2010 to the middle of last November. Union officials have always believed that Ringer is the power behind Selig's throne, and don't think there will be an agreement until Ringer gives his assent. Agents who have worked with both sides expect owners to come back with a counteroffer, one that would credit players with less than full-service time. Fehr has said there won't be a deal unless it includes full service. Owners say they have all these marketing plans they want to put in place during the offseason. But unless they get a deal, there's always the chance of another work stoppage. Selig must make the next move. Until then, the rest of baseball waits.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
