Owners putting squeeze on game
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
So much for basking in the glow of the World Series. After one of the most dramatic postseasons, a Series that was every bit the October (and November) Classic, the lords of baseball lost that warm, fuzzy feeling faster than you can say foreclosure.
Barely 48 hours after the winning run crossed the plate and while the confetti was still being picked up in Arizona, team owners voted yesterday to eliminate two teams from the lineup before the start of next season in what would be the first contraction of teams in more than a century.
Florida? Minnesota? Montreal? Tampa Bay?
We're left to ponder not only the who but also the why. Especially here and now.
Will saying "you're out!" to two of the 30 existing franchises, perhaps even two that are a decade or less removed from their own World Series triumphs, really strengthen the foundation of the game? Will Commissioner Bud Selig pulling the trap door cure all that ails baseball?
That's unlikely, unless baseball plans to play its own game of survivor, where it purges a franchise or two every so often until it gets down to the 16 to 20 that have the financial wherewithal to be competitive year in and year out. Fall below some corporate Mendoza Line (the Bud Line?) and the franchise gets vaporized.
If this indeed has anything to do with restoring a competitive balance, it is only collaterally as the owners look for leverage on other fronts more near and dear.
This exercise smacks more of a way to apply pressure on cities and states to ante up for newer, more lucrative stadiums. It isn't hard to see this as a shot across the bow of government officials and voters not only in areas that might face the ax this time but for future reference as well.
Nor can the players and their union have taken this, a threat to eliminate 50 roster spots in one swoop, as anything less than the first salvo in the stalled negotiations on a labor contract that expires today.
If the owners head down this path the one thing that is assured is that they are opening the door to the kind of litigation that will mean more time in depositions and courtrooms than in their stadiums.
What is clear is that seven years after the bitter labor squabble between the owners and players brought the cancellation of the 1994 playoffs and the kind of bitterness baseball has only recently recovered from, the parties have learned very little at all.
It turns out the two sides made little progress in addressing the problems that confront the game. Negotiations have gone nowhere and neither has the search for a long-term solution.
While Selig says, "We're breaking historic ground here — no professional sports league (in modern times) has done this," it isn't the kind of precedent baseball should be proud of.
