Baseball: Baseball Strikes Out

▪ 1995

      On Sept. 14, 1994, acting commissioner Allan H. ("Bud") Selig announced that the remainder of the 1994 major league baseball season, including the World Series, would be canceled. The World Series had been contested every October since 1905, surviving cold snaps, two world wars, and the Great Depression. Fans throughout the U.S. and Canada mourned its loss.

      But Selig, who was also chairman of the Milwaukee Brewers, said that the decision was unavoidable. The Major League Baseball Players Association called a strike after the games of August 11, and from then until the September announcement, management and the union failed to settle on a new basic agreement. Thus, Selig, with the support of 26 of 28 fellow owners, revealed what was deemed a foregone conclusion at a press conference in Milwaukee.

      Because of the impasse, 669 regular-season games were canceled, not including the postseason play-offs and the World Series. Major league baseball, a $2 billion industry, thus entered what Selig termed "uncharted territory" as it headed toward an uncertain winter after revenue losses estimated at $800 million.

      The work stoppage was baseball's eighth since 1972, because of either a strike or a lockout by the owners. The most serious interruption before 1994 occurred in 1981, when the union struck on June 12 and did not return until August 9. The disputes usually concerned issues such as free-agent compensation and salary arbitration, mechanisms that helped the union achieve leverage over owners.

      The union gained power through two widely heralded events—Marvin Miller's appointment in 1966 as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association and, in 1975, arbitrator Peter Seitz's ruling that pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally were free agents, available to the highest bidder. Previously, management had tendered contracts containing a Reserve Clause, which bound players to one team in perpetuity.

      Major league owners, led by Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox (see BIOGRAPHIES (Reinsdorf, Jerry )), held out for a salary cap to put a limit on team payrolls. Such caps were already being used in the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. Baseball owners, painting a dire picture for the future, insisted that a salary cap was imperative if disaster was to be averted. The union balked, claiming that the cap was an artificial restraint on earning power and a tool whereby players had to sacrifice to help the owners control their own free-spending ways.

      Miller's successor as labour leader, Donald Fehr, discounted management's prediction of imminent doom. He also dismissed various reports that anywhere from 12 to 19 major league franchises were losing money. Richard Ravitch, representing management, decried the union's intransigence. The owners' original proposal provided a 50-50 split of revenue with players and guaranteed them $1 billion per year over a seven-year period even if revenues did not increase.

      Several negotiating sessions were held between the time of the strike and the cancellation, but the mood was hostile and contentious. The owners had succumbed on previous occasions but were under no pressure from a commissioner to bend again. Fay Vincent, the previous commissioner, had resigned late in 1992 and not been replaced. Selig performed his duties, and that was another annoyance to the players, who felt that as an owner he had a conflict of interest.

      Soon after Selig's announcement, U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton appointed William Usery to mediate the dispute. A veteran negotiator, Usery expressed confidence that there would be a settlement in time to start the 1995 baseball season, but the stalemate continued at year's end. On December 23 the owners implemented their salary cap, and the players prepared to mount legal challenges. (ROBERT WILLIAM VERDI)

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