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CNN Live At Daybreak

Baseball Still Up in Air; Interview with Brian Placzkowski

Aired August 30, 2002 - 05:02   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More on the potential major league strike now. And player reps and owners and the baseball commish, they've all been at the bargaining table all night long.
Our Josie Karp is in New York and she joins us live by phone with the latest on the negotiations -- Josie, please tell us it's over.

JOSIE KARP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can't tell you for sure it's over, but we're getting indications now that the two sides are close to an agreement. And for the first time in 30 years, they might actually be able to negotiate one of these collective bargaining agreements without a work stoppage.

They have been meeting all night long, going back and forth. There was one meeting that took place from about 4:00 a.m. to 4:15 a.m. It was after that meeting that one force on the owners' negotiating team side said when he was asked if a deal could get done, whether a strike could be averted. His response was, "We'll get it done."

It doesn't mean it's done yet. It doesn't mean the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed. There are still a couple of stumbling blocks. It looks like revenue sharing is all but done. They've made a lot of progress and are narrowing the gap on the issue of luxury tax. And the hurdle that remains is the one about at the end of this agreement, which will last four years, what will the exact termination dates be? Will it be October 31, December 31 or somehow in between?

COSTELLO: Josie, do you think both sides realized that if they did go on strike, they'd be crazy?

KARP: Well, I don't know if they'd put it in exactly those terms. But clearly both sides have understood all along just how devastating a strike can be, how the climate in this country might be different from the climate in years past and they've said that they've tried to keep that in mind.

Who knows if it's what is going through their minds as they're sitting there at the table. But, again, as of right now -- and these talks go back and forth and the mood can change very quickly -- it looks like there's optimism that this time they can get it done without a work stoppage.

COSTELLO: Well, good. Just in time for the games to be played today.

Josie Karp, thank you very much. Of course, we'll get back to you later to see if anything new happens, and we hope it's all positive news. We'll see.

But like a tense battle in the bottom of the ninth, major league players and owners are down to their last out in trying to avoid that strike. Fans vented their anger during the last game played last night. Security officers at the Tampa Bay/Anaheim game escorted a number of people out who threw beach balls and foul balls back onto the field. During the seventh inning stretch, fans chanted, "Don't Strike! Don't Strike!" Fans also displayed their emotions on signs seen at yesterday's games throughout the big leagues. The San Francisco-Colorado game was called, but not for labor reasons. A power outage and a thunderstorm caused a 38 minute delay and umpires called the game in the ninth due to a tornado warning. Before leaving for the last ditch talks in New York, National League player representative Tom Glavine had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM GLAVINE, NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYER REPRESENTATIVE: If you feel like there's significant progress being made then, you know, you go as long as you can or as long as you have to and consider what other options you might have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: He had to leave before the Braves game was over, Tom Glavine.

Lawyers for both sides have been shuttling between the commissioner's office and union headquarters throughout the night. Sources say progress is being made, but it's too early to tell if today's game schedule can be saved. But as you just heard from Josie Karp, it looks positive. It looks like a strike will be averted. We'll keep you posted throughout the morning and check back with Josie Karp in a little bit.

You can't tell by the size of their paychecks, but major league baseball players are similar to steel workers. Let that sink in for just a minute. They are brothers in the labor force.

Let's check in again with Josie Karp on tape. She takes a look at the union of the workers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARP: The steelworker and the superstar would not appear to have a lot in common. But trade the bat and the glove for a hard hat and overalls and they are both members of labor organizations who say they're fighting for better working conditions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baseball players now have a voice in their workplace and they are using that under the collective bargaining way that we do things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, a labor dispute is a labor dispute, and we recognize them as a union organization.

KARP: In theory, they are all brothers. In practice, the baseball player's average $2.4 million salary can weaken the fraternity's bond.

DEAN DRYDEN, IRONWORKERS UNION #387: I respect them as union members, but, you know, they're definitely, definitely in a different category. You know, I look at the guys that's in our union here. These ironworkers work just as hard and work your round in the hot summer and the cold of winter up on a high rise dangling by their shoestrings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One point I'd like to show you is that a letter that we put out with the chairman of the plan over there, Mitchell Smith and myself. It shows that we're getting a 14 cent an hour raise in the cost of living, along with a three percent raise base rate because of our contract in September. That's about an 80 cent raise altogether, and this is big news with our members. But I don't think that it's going to -- it wouldn't make a big splash with Chipper and Tom Webb and the rest of those boys.

KARP: There was a time not so long ago when baseball players were working men themselves. In 1966, the pitcher and now U.S. Senator Jim Bunning, was among a group of players who enlisted the help of Marvin Miller, a veteran of the steelworkers union, to represent them in their struggle with baseball's owners.

SEN. JIM BUNNING (R), KENTUCKY: When we hired Mr. Miller he said he would never strike baseball. And obviously that promise has not been kept.

KARP (on camera): With five walkouts in the last 30 years leading up to this summer, the strike has become routine in baseball. But with overall union membership on the decline in the United States, unions have lost a lot of their clout and the strike weapon is one that's not brandished as often now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The basic collective bargaining agreements of anybody, the strike is the last resort.

DRYDEN: You know, you may have to give a little and then on the next one, you know, the management might have to give in a little bit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Years ago the UAW actually made a lot of concessions in order to save Ford Motor Company. The UAW made concessions to save Chrysler. I don't see the players making that many concessions to save baseball.

KARP (voice-over): A history lesson from one union worker to another.

Josie Karp, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Half a world away from America's ball parks, U.S. troops put their lives on the line daily in Afghanistan. You know that. Many of those troops are, of course, baseball fans.

One of them wrote us about his displeasure over a potential strike. Staff Sergeant Scott Thomas ends his letter this way: "Baseball players need to stop thinking of their two houses and five automobiles and start remembering 9/11 and become patriots and play for the game. I'm a Braves fan and I have lived in Atlanta my whole life. If the play conditions are so bad, Tom Glavine can come and stand guard behind one of my M240B machine guns and see what the price of his freedom really is."

Now for more reaction from U.S. servicemen and women in Afghanistan, we want to go live to Kandahar.

Private Brian Placzkowski, with the 82nd Airborne, joins us by video phone.

Brian, your friend wrote that letter. Why did he feel impelled to write that letter from Afghanistan?

PVT. BRIAN PLACZKOWSKI, 82ND AIRBORNE: Well, we watch a lot, I mean we watch a lot of baseball when we're home and, you know, we're big baseball fans and we're just not happy with what's going on right now.

COSTELLO: Well, our Josie Karp said that they might have averted the strike and have come to an agreement. Does that make you feel better about baseball?

PLACZKOWSKI: Well, it makes us feel good that they're starting to realize, you know, how good things really are and that they need to avoid the strike if at all possible at any cost.

COSTELLO: You know, does it still put a bad taste in your mouth even if they come to an agreement? Does it still, you know, put a bad taste in your mouth about the sport of baseball?

PLACZKOWSKI: Not personally me, no. I've been a baseball fan for a long time. Even the first strike didn't, you know, it kind of made me mad, but, you know, that baseball resumed and, you know, that's all that I cared about.

COSTELLO: Well, I did like what your friend said about Tom Glavine going over to Afghanistan to stand guard. And, of course, he makes millions of dollars a year and you guys don't make very much for what you do.

PLACZKOWSKI: No, ma'am. Well, you know, I've got -- whoa. Sorry about that.

COSTELLO: No problem. Go ahead.

PLACZKOWSKI: Well, I've got a good friend that used to play Double A ball for the Cleveland Indians and, you know, he used to make $900 a month. And to me, you know -- and he told me he didn't really care because he was playing professional baseball for a living, you know? That's all that he ever hoped for. And I think, you know, that's all that they should be hoping...

COSTELLO: You're having a little problem with your...

PLACZKOWSKI: Sorry about that. What happened to the love of the game, you know? Sorry about that.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's...

PLACZKOWSKI: And what happened to the love of the game when you could go out and play professional baseball for a living, you know? It shouldn't matter how much money you make.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, it does, though, doesn't it?

PLACZKOWSKI: Yes, it sure does.

COSTELLO: It seems to.

OK, we'll let you get...

PLACZKOWSKI: And they talk about -- I lost it. It's all fuzz in my ear.

COSTELLO: OK. We're going to let you go, Private Brian Placzkowski, live from Kandahar talking about the baseball strike that possibly has been averted this morning.

Thank you, guys. We'll let you get back to work there in Afghanistan.

Of course, this all brings us to our DAYBREAK e-mail question of the day. Baseball players and owners are still at the bargaining table. To strike or not to strike, that is the question. Tell us what you think. Send your e-mails to daybreak@cnn.com. Of course, we will read your e-mails later on in the show.

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