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CNN Live Today

Baseball Players' Union Likely to Set Strike Date

Aired August 12, 2002 - 12:04   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, will they or won't they? Baseball fans are holding their breath as the players union talks strike date.
Let's go to Chicago now, where the players' reps are gathering, and Josie Karp of CNN Sports is watching -- Josie, what are you hearing?

JOSIE KARP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, in just about an hour, a meeting of the executive board of the Players' Union is expected to get underway here at a hotel at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and there is every reason to believe that a strike date will be set. It is impression that has been given off for at least the past week or so, certainly the impression I got just moments ago from speaking to Gene Orza, who is the number two man in the union.

And today we're observing the eight year anniversary of the last strike in 1994 that, of course, went on for 232 days and canceled the World Series for the first time. The question that remains is, then how could the players possibly consider doing this again. In speaking to Gene Orza, he said, really it is the only thing that they have left in their arsenal.

The owners have come out and said that they believe that the players could take other measures, but according to Orza, there is the fear that if they play out the rest of the season, in the off season, the owners will unilaterally impose new work rules or they could lock them out. Then you have to consider the fact that if a strike date is set, it doesn't necessarily mean that the players will go on strike. If you listen to Orza, he said that the strike date is just pressure to get both sides to feel a little more urgent to try to come to an agreement. In terms of what is standing in the way of coming to that agreement, it is the core economic issues of revenue sharing and a luxury tax. The players and the owners have agreed on a lot of other things. They are coming closer to an agreement on drug testing, but they still remain far apart when it comes to those economic issues, and that is why we are talking about the fact that they could set that strike date today. The dates that they are talking about, sometime in the last 10 days of August and the first 10 days of September -- Carol.

LIN: Well, that is coming up. Josie, do you get a sense there, though, that the players' reps and the union officials are taking the fans seriously? I mean, three different national fan organizations have already organized strike dates of their own, telling fans, don't show up to these ball games and send a message?

KARP: Well, for the most part, what the players and the owners are saying is that they are trying to take into consideration how the fans would feel. They are trying to remember how devastating the strike was back in 1994. It took a long time for fans to come back, for attendance levels to get back up to where they were before that strike. But they are aware of all those things, but in the end, they say they have to do what they feel like is best for them and best for the game in general in the long-term, and that is why they are even considering this possibility.

LIN: All right. Thank you very much, Josie Karp. We will be hearing from you in the next hour. Appreciate it.

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