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CNN Live Today

Looming Threat of Baseball Strike

Aired August 12, 2002 - 13:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR; First this hour, the looming threat of a baseball strike. As the players union meets in Chicago this hour, some of the players are saying a date for a strike could actually energize talks with the owners.
But to hear the fans tell it, it's a step toward disaster. We'll have a live report in just a moment. But first, why baseball is poised at the brink, again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN (voice-over): The battle lines in baseball are as clear as the lines on the field. As in many labor fights, the battle is over money, who gets it and who gets to keep it. The owners want to change their profit-sharing plan. Teams currently share 20 percent of locally generated revenue that comes from ticket sales, local radio and TV deals, even beers, soft drinks and food. Commissioner Bud Selig wants them to share 50 percent with the league. Selig wants to create a team payroll cap and collect a 50 percent surcharge on the amount any team spends over the cap. The union says that will create a salary cap, and limit how much money an individual player can make.

This season, the average salary for major leaguers: $2.38 million dollars. That's more money that many fans will make in a lifetime, and may contribute to the anger that fans have towards players they already see as greedy.

Another contentious issue: contraction. The owners suggested dropping two teams, but never specified which ones, but the likely candidates are Montreal, Minnesota, Florida, or Tampa Bay. The players have been adamant against contraction, since two fewer teams mean dozen fewer players.

It's a decision of dollars. Dropping two teams means each team will get a bigger slice of the national TV contract pie. And we're talking about big bucks. The current TV deal is worth $2.5 billion over the next six seasons.

Issue number two: drug testing. But on this battleground, there seem to be a little common ground. After fighting steroid testing for years, the player offering to allow some very limited steroid testing. The owners want more testing more often, testing for steroids and illegal drugs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: The last players' strike began eight years ago today, and it lasted seven months, wiped out the World Series, and drove away fans. So a lot is at stake at that meeting today in Chicago.

CNN's Josie Karp is there to fill us in.

And, Josie, sounds like things are getting going.

JOSIE KARP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think a lot of the noise you are hearing is the media waiting for people to arrive. I think this meeting is scheduled to start right about now. There's still players who are trickling in from across the country. There's actually five games on the schedule today,so players from those teams, some of them won't be able to make it, but some of those team also have players on the disabled list that they are going to be able to send. So there should be a pretty good representation of every single team here at Chicago O'Hare Airport. We're in a hotel right here.

LIN: Josie?

KARP: Carol...

LIN: I didn't know if I had chance to ask you a question, but please, go ahead?

KARP: Yes, go ahead, ask me a question.

LIN: I was wondering from your perspective, I mean, how different do you think are these talks than the ones back in 1994 that eventually led to the strike?

KARP: Well, I think everyone whose involve said, number one, there's a much different tone. There's not the rancor and the acrimony that was present back in 1994. The other concrete difference is when the players walked out in 1994, there had been very little in terms of aggressive, intense bargaining at the table on any of the major issues. But really, for the last month or so, the owners and the players have intensified their labor negotiations. They dealt with a lot of the less core issues, things that they would get through, so they could then concentrate on those economic issues of revenue sharing and a luxury tax, and they've even addressed those to a certain extent.

So they're a lot further along in the process, Carol, now than they were at this point in 1994.

LIN: That's good news, but there's some side issue. I'm not sure if you've heard of this one, but I read the other day that one on the co-owners of the Mets had filed a lawsuit. There were a series of suits and countersuits, trying to force Bud Selig to open the books there and really take a look at what the owner's professors are. How is that likely to have an impact on these talks?

KARP: Well, I think it's unlikely that what's going on with the Mets situation will have any sort of a direct impact on these talks. If it was going to have an impact, it was probably last week, when it got a lot of publicity, because for a long time, the players have suggested that maybe things aren't as bad as the owners try to make it out to be. And here it was an owner who was, in essence, suggesting the very same thing.

But I believe that it -- had there been a major impact, it probably would have taken place last week. Both sides say that's probably not something that will be a stumbling block in these negotiations.

LIN: Got you. All right, thank you very much, Josie. We'll look forward to seeing who arrives. And when somebody does, you just let us know.

KARP: Thanks so much.

LIN: Josie Karp, covering the player's union meeting in Chicago.

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