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CNN Saturday Morning News

Last-Minute Labor Deal Averts Baseball Strike

Aired August 31, 2002 - 07:17   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Last-minute labor deals keeping the boys of summer playing through the fall. CNN's Larry Smith gives us the nuts and bolts of the deal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the dark clouds from the disastrous 1994 strike still hanging over the game, baseball's antagonists did what Commissioner Bud Selig quips that some thought they'd never live to see. For the first time since 1969, a baseball labor dispute didn't end with a work stoppage.

Instead, players and owners agreed to a four-year deal that ensures the completion of this season without interruption, and gives both sides some breathing room to deal with financial issues that continue to bedevil the game.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICIAL: It's been a very long time since a collective bargaining agreement in baseball has been negotiated without a work stoppage. And what we can now hope for is that it will be a very long time before a collectively bargaining is agreement is negotiated after a work stoppage.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICIAL: This has been a long, very difficult, and winding road, spanning over three-plus decades. But at least today, we were able to do what hasn't been done before.

SMITH: Both sides in this acrimonious dispute made concessions. The players received a guarantee that no teams will be eliminated during the term of the new contract, but the owners were able to impose a tax on skyrocketing payrolls that will be phased in starting next year.

Minimum salaries go up by 50 percent to $300,000, but players will be tested for steroids, finally joining their counterparts in most of the other major sports.

UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: You have to compromise sometimes. And I think both sides compromised, and they got into a structure that they felt like we could get a deal done, and there was some compromise made, and the deal was reached.

UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: But I think players have been sensitive from day one about what it means to the fans and what it means to the game of baseball, and we certainly thought about that. And, you know, it certainly was a part of the process, you know, and I think ultimately it had a part in keeping the two sides together and talking until we got something done.

SMITH: Still to be determined is whether Friday's agreement will result in greater competitive balance among the 30 teams, and whether that hoped-for parity will draw disaffected fans back to the game.

Under the new contract, the Yankees, winners of four World Series, under the current labor rules could write a check to lesser teams for more than $50 million next year.

But it's not clear what mechanism exists to ensure that those extra dollars will be spent on talented players who will bring some wins and fans to small market ball parks.

I'm Larry Smith.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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