MLB and MLBPA officials “will soon sit down together and begin discussions” on a new collective bargaining agreement, and the “key issues – revenue sharing, cost containment in the draft – are a prelude to other more important ones to come, in particular: schedule inequalities. , the seemingly desperate situation of Tampa Bay and Oakland stadiums, the fate of the designated hitter and Bud Selig’s long-held musings, geographic realignment,” according to Bill Madden of the NY DAILY NEWS. Although “none of these “It’s not on the job agenda, people in baseball are talking about it.” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said he “stays up at night setting up realignment scenarios that would solve a lot of the problems Showalter was not specific about the contraction, but Madden wrote that there was a “growing feeling about it throughout baseball, particularly as it relates to the Rays and A’s.” At least three baseball executives “targeted these two teams as the most logical to go.” One said, “It’s pretty clear that neither of these teams can continue to operate in these facilities. Another executive said: “How much longer can you expect every other team to subsidize two teams, in frivolous situations, with revenue sharing to keep them afloat?” One source said that Rays owner Stuart Sternberg and A’s owner Lew Wolff told MLB Commissioner Bud Selig they were “not prepared to continue operating under the current circumstances.” Madden noted that MLB “can unilaterally draft teams but must collectively negotiate the effects of the contraction with the union – particularly the loss of those 50 jobs and what happens to those players” (NY DAILY NEWS, 2/27).
NO MAJOR OBSTACLES: On Long Island, Erik Boland reported that MLBPA general manager Michael Weiner “sees no major obstacles in the way” of a new CBA, but he has been in the union “for more than 20 years, so He knows things can change.” quickly.” Weiner: “I’m hopeful that the lines of communication will be open. … We’re not taking anything for granted.” Boland noted that the MLB CBA was “in late December and talks, although nothing substantial, have begun.” Weiner “believes those discussions will begin ‘in earnest’ once the season begins.” Everything from “baseball’s drug testing policy to the international draft to a ban on smokeless chewing tobacco will be on the table.” Weiner said of the discussions : “I don’t think the status quo will be maintained, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is looking to reinvent the wheel” (NEWSDAY, 2/27). In Newark, Marc Carig noted that MLB’s smokeless tobacco ban, advocated by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), “will be discussed during negotiations to develop a collective bargaining agreement to replace the one that expires in December. But Weiner said Saturday that moving toward a ban was “difficult for many reasons.” Weiner: “The health risks are clear, the concern about its consumption by children is clear. But it’s also a legal substance. We’re talking about adults, we’re not talking about cigarette smoke, where it there is a secondary health risk” (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 2/27).
AIR THEIR DIRTY LAUNDRY: In Chicago, Phil Rogers wrote that “one of the few times in the past decade” MLB team officials recently “made public wildly varied views on economic conditions – demonstrating a clear absence of lock in the negotiations on a new collective bargaining”. the agreement begins. » White Sox senior vice president and general manager Ken Williams and Yankees co-chairman and general partner Hank Steinbrenner “dropped the kind of verbal bombs that were common in the bad days of baseball labor relations” . Williams said MLB “needs to do more to help small markets, calling for a salary cap to level the playing field.” He added that “rising wages, rising ticket prices and the need to help low-revenue teams are problems so serious that baseball has reached critical mass.” Meanwhile, Steinbrenner made a “thinly veiled reference to eliminating weak franchises.” The comments “suggest a massive divide between the Yankees and most of the 29 other teams entering the final season” of the current CBA, and the “economic tension between the Yankees and their competitors suggests that Selig will have to work to prevent the union from go back. to the “divide and conquer” playbook left by former MLBPA executives Marvin Miller and Donald Fehr (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/27). In Boston, Nick Cafardo noted last week that Yankees and Red Sox officials “both mentioned revenue sharing” and “on that subject, both were united.” Steinbrenner called the $130 million the Yankees contributed to revenue sharing “socialism.” Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino noted that his team contributed about $86 million toward revenue sharing. Cafardo wrote that he “needs to freeze out big market owners when the Royals receive revenue sharing money while owned by ‘David Glass,’ one of the richest men in America” . However, “nobody wants a salary cap”. The MLBPA “would never allow a salary cap, anyway,” so the “solution might be what Steinbrenner suggests: If you can’t run your business well enough, you shouldn’t have a business” (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/27).
