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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Bob May

Aired August 31, 2002 - 17:20   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk baseball. Where baseball fans have been bracing for an early end to the season with many claiming they'd swear off the game for good if there was another strike. Bob May, president and founder of Baseball Fans Unite International joins us to talk about whether the deal is going to help baseball win back bitter fans. Hey there, Bob.
BOB MAY, PRESIDENT, BASEBALL FANS UNITE INTERNATIONAL: Good afternoon, Fredricka, how are you?

WHITFIELD: Good. Good to see you. Well, I'm wondering, with this three hours left before they finally came down to the wire and made a deal, how much of this was saving face and how much of this deal do you think was, instead, leveling the playing field for baseball?

MAY: Well, I think they probably accomplished more of saving face, but they've also taken a first step for leveling the playing field, and I think the fact that they took a step toward each other, rather than fighting totally, I think is a positive step. And I think -- go ahead.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead, I'm sorry.

MAY: I think we need to give thanks all around. First, I want to thank God that the new collective bargaining agreement was done. I think that was an answer to many people's prayers. I think baseball fans everywhere need to be thanked, because they let their anger and frustration show. I think the players and owners saw that.

We need to thank all the fan organizations out there. We need to thank Jim Bunning, Ozzie Smith and the Hall of Fame crew that spoke up. The public stadium group also spoke up. And then we do need to give certainly thanks to the media for coverage of fan organizations. We need to thank Commissioner Selig and Donald Fehr.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right, we got our thanks out there, you're doing a good job thanking everybody. Perhaps a lot of those lesser, wealthy teams are also giving thanks too, because it means that now $258 million from the wealthier teams has to kind of spread out a little bit more. Do you think of those poorer teams, if you want to put it that way, do you suppose that extra money will help them now get the more competitive, higher-priced players in order to better compete?

MAY: Yeah, I think it will. You know, I don't think this answers everything. I know one of the things that we had pushed for was they should have had a salary floor, but they didn't. However, if a team gets money, like let's say the Kansas City Royals, and if they don't put it into player development, I think the fans will be all over that ownership for not putting the money where they should.

WHITFIELD: There was some talk that a lot of players, perhaps -- a lot of fans, I should say, said that, you know, if there was a strike, they wouldn't come back. But there were an awful lot of fans who kind of, you know, dropped out of the stadiums too after the most recent strike. Do you suppose that because the game is now going on, going forward, that a lot of those disgruntled fans are now deciding that, you know what, baseball's OK. I'm ready to go back to the stadiums and watch them play ball?

MAY: I think, you know, a major thing was accomplished here, and fans deserve part of the credit. I wish Commissioner Selig and Donald Fehr had said that, because the fans have spoken, and for the first time in 30 years of labor negotiations in baseball, we did not have a work stoppage. And that was the short-term objective of many of the fan organizations.

WHITFIELD: All right. Bob May, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

MAY: You're welcome.

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