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CNN Live Sunday

Baseball Players Union Meets Monday to Talk Strike

Aired July 07, 2002 - 17:27   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hit by the death of pitcher Darryl Kile and Hall of Famer Ted Williams, players gather in Milwaukee for the All-Star game, while the executive board of the union gathers in Chicago Monday where they could vote to set a strike deadline. CNN's Brian Palmer talks to the fans about a possible pause in the national pastime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is it deja vu all over again, to quote the legendary coach and player Yogi Berra, or is it just a threat by a few disgruntled players? A threat to strike. Strike talk is the last thing fans like these at Yankee Stadium want to hear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all big money. The players and management should sit down and just come to a compromise, because the people are losing the fans, and that's the bottom line.

PALMER: Air Force Major Bill Spretsky (ph) and his family came in from Pennsylvania to see the Yankee old-timers game.

(on camera): So is it just the players who are at fault, or do the owners share some responsibility?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe both of them. I mean, it's the case of the owners want more, the players want more.

PALMER (voice-over): Fans aren't the only ones who would lose out. The vendors who sell the t-shirts, pretzels and hot dogs would also suffer.

(on camera): How would a strike affect the folks who actually sell the merchandise?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would really affect us, because we won't get our cent. That's our job. We work on commission. So if there is no games, basically we don't get paid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people that are here, that work here for a living, a lot of them, this is their second or third job. So for them, it would be a big loss out of their pocket if they couldn't be there every week. PALMER (voice-over): Former Yankee power hitter Reggie Jackson, a Hall of Famer and a self-described fan, weighed in reluctantly at an old-timers game news conference.

REGGIE JACKSON, HALL OF FAMER: I respond to it the same way everyone in the room does. I condense it all to an argument about dollars. And so I get offended, just as anyone else does.

PALMER: Over the past 30 years, work stoppages have halted Major League play eight times. The last time, 1994. That strike soured many true blue fans on big league ball.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My father never recovered from the strike back in the '80s. He's left since then. But I would tend to think they would learn the lessons after '94, but evidently they didn't, and maybe at the last minute calmer heads will prevail and they'll realize they're going to throw everything away.

PALMER: The only thing left for fans to do is to enjoy each game as it comes.

Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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