The executive board of the baseball player's union may set a strike date today.
Player representatives gathered at an airport hotel to listen to a report from their staff and decide what action to take. A strike date in late August or early September could lead to baseball's ninth work stoppage since 1972 and the cancellation of the World Series for the second time in nine years.The key stumbling block in talks appears to be management's demand to slow escalating player salaries - a luxury tax on teams with high payrolls.
"Eventually, it all has to be tied together," said Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine, the National League player representative. "There's caution on our side because obviously the big issues - revenue sharing and luxury tax - are out there. Those can set the negotiations in motion quickly in one direction or the other."
Finding a way to slow salaries has been a perennial management goal long before Bud Selig became commissioner in 1998. Players, however, would like keep things the way they are. Since 1976, the last season before free agency, the average salary has jumped from $51,500 to $2.38 million, a 46-fold increase.
Selig said it has reached the point where only the richest teams can compete. He thinks revenue-sharing - taking from the biggest clubs and giving to the smaller ones, like his family-owned Milwaukee Brewers - is the only way to restore competitive balance.
So, what's it going to be? The multi-millionaire owners, who, since they cannot exercise fiscal discipline on their own, are demanding that the players do it for them? Or the multi-millionaire players, who like things just the way they are, thank you, and how dare you expect us to assist in fixing baseball's problems?
A pox on both their houses....
