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American Morning

Talk of Strike in Baseball

Aired July 08, 2002 - 08:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRIS MYERS, CNN ANCHOR: Baseball's annual midseason all star break, a time for reflection on the season so far. Also a time for anticipation of the pennant races to come, but this morning the talk about a possible strike. All too familiar in this sport. Can baseball's owners and players afford another work stoppage like the one that wiped out the World Series in 1994, in which owners lost billions and players millions?

Today in Chicago, the players association meeting to talk about setting a strike date. Bad timing. Joining us from Milwaukee, site of tomorrow night's all star game, "Sports Illustrated" baseball writer Tom Verducci.

Tom, nice to see you again. How are you?

TOM VERDUCCI, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": I'm well, Chris, how are you?

MYERS: Good.

For people out there may not even be baseball fans, they hear this as once again greedy owners, greedy players fighting over money, and the timing couldn't be worse. Give them a percentage on if you think we will see a loss of any baseball playing time this season, 20 percent? Fifty-fifty at this point?

VERDUCCI: Well, I think it's probably less than 50/50, Chris. You'd like to be optimistic, but that fly notice face of history. I mean, this is the ninth time that the labor agreement has come up for renewal, and so far, the owners and players are 0 for 8 when it comes to avoiding some sort of work stoppage. So history is definitely not on their side here.

Obviously a lot of distrust, a lot of bad blood that poisons the environment. It's going to be very tough for them to get an agreement, no matter how optimistic everybody wants to be.

MYERS: That 8-0 score favors the players union and Don Fehr. They have the shutout going. What about a strike date being set by the players today. Is there -- I've heard August, but is there one in place, and wouldn't they be better off at least not to announce it?

VERDUCCI: Well, the players position on this has always been that it is better to announce it. There really has not been a whole lot of movement, if any, on the major issues at stake here going back to the last two seasons. They believe that really progress will not begin to be made until there's some sort of pressure interjected into the environment. That is, set a deadline, get a strike date that forces people to get something done. That's why in the past they have come out and announced strike dates.

Although, go back to 1994, they talked about a strike day during the all star break, did not announce it actually during that break. Obviously the all star game is one of the showcase events in Major League Baseball. They don't want to really pollute the environment. It's supposed to be a feel-good time. It's hard to do with the cloud of the labor agreement hanging over everything.

But I think what they'll do, is they'll talk about when they should set a strike date. A lot of dates have been thrown out there, the most popular one is in mid-August, as it was in 1994. Some people have talked about a little bit later in September. But basically, they need to allow a window in case they do go on strike to get an agreement done before the season ends. I think the date will probably be in August.

MYERS: Revenue sharing and salary cap the issues. At the all star game, they're going to name the all star MVP award after Ted Williams, which is a nice gesture, that starts tomorrow evening. Ted Williams' son would like through cryogenics to freeze his body, to preserve the DNA for the future, but the daughter not in favor of that necessarily. What are people in baseball saying about this idea, Tom, what's your opinion about it?

VERDUCCI: Well, Chris, it's just -- it's just terrible that the family has to be arguing over something like this. I mean, obviously this reminds a lot of people get things in order before your loved ones are passed away, because let's face it, Ted Williams was not just a baseball icon, but an American icon, a war hero, a guy who did tremendous charity work, one of the most recognizable figures in the latter half of the 20th century, and here we are with two of his children fighting over what to do with his remains.

It is a terrific gesture that Major League Baseball has announce that the all star MVP award will be the Ted Williams Award. Williams said one of his greatest thrills in baseball was winning an extra inning World Series game with a home run. I think that's fitting, but it's just shame that the family has to fight about this, and again, it sounds like something that should have been addressed. Ted was sick for a long time before he actually passed away.

MYERS: It should have been his call. I think Austin Powers tried that; it didn't work out so well.

Thank you, Tom Verducci, from Milwaukee, where the all star game will take place tomorrow night, the National League against the American League. May the best millionaires win.

Thanks, Tom.

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