Ueberroth Has Had Fast Jump From Plate

Peter Ueberroth’s four-month tenure as baseball commissioner brings to mind a remark Winston Churchill once made to a fellow member of parliament: “I like things to happen, and if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen.”

In the last few weeks, Ueberroth has:

--Negotiated deals with three teams that show their games nationwide on television superstations--the Atlanta Braves, the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers--for better than $7 million in annual revenue sharing with the other clubs. The other owners previously got nothing from the superstations.

--Sent a letter to the Chicago Cubs, the text of which was released Tuesday, that told the Cubs to install lights at Wrigley Field or face the possibility of his ordering that future home playoff and World Series games “be played elsewhere . . . perhaps not even in Chicago.”

--Disclosed plans for a considerable expansion of the commissioner’s office in Newport Beach, with security and marketing representatives to be added to the current scouting headquarters there. While nothing will be moved out of the New York headquarters for now, Ueberroth said Wednesday, “I’m going to try to be more of a bicoastal commissioner.”

--Committed to Congress that baseball will increase the number of major-league franchises but made no precise pledge of how many teams will be added or when it will be done. Wednesday, he mentioned two 16-club leagues as a desirable goal. The American League has 14 teams now and the National League 12.

And this is just what Ueberroth is willing to own up to publicly.

As always with the former chief of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, there are other reports--from seemingly reliable people--of positions he has been taking privately.

For instance, a leading players’ agent said last week that in recent meetings with Ueberroth, he had gotten the impression that Ueberroth views the contract talks between the club owners and baseball union representatives as likely to lead to a situation shortly after the season begins where a strike or a settlement will hang narrowly in the balance.

In such a circumstance, the agent reported, Ueberroth is prepared to intervene in an attempt to bring about a settlement.

Wednesday, Ueberroth denied any intention to intervene.

“Whoever is conjecturing that is just wrong,” he said. “I’m not part of the collective-bargaining process, and it would be wrong to step in at a later point.”

But wasn’t his predecessor, Bowie Kuhn, blamed for not doing more to avert or bring to an early end the disastrous players’ strike of 1981? Could Ueberroth afford to stay out of a crisis situation?

“I don’t think that that applies,” he responded. “I chart my own course pretty well.”

That is true, but based on his record, it is hard to imagine Ueberroth staying out of anything that affects his sphere of activity, much less his reputation. And in the umpire’s strike that marked his first days in office, he did intervene and successfully settled the matter.

Similarly, there have been reports that Ueberroth was angry about Dodger owner Peter O’Malley’s recent attempt to insert mandatory drug-testing clauses into some players’ contracts. That action briefly disrupted the contract talks, and the commissioner forcefully made his views known.

Ueberroth insisted at the time that he was taking no position.

Wednesday, Ueberroth, in discussing his accomplishments as baseball commissioner, put heavy stress on the agreements for sharing the superstation money.

“Our goal is to solve the superstation problem without litigation in a free-market way and this is the first step taken,” he said, pointing out that although the Braves, Yankees and Rangers have come to terms, he is continuing negotiations with the two other clubs that have superstation deals, the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs.

The agreements to share revenue, particularly by the Braves, whose owner, Ted Turner, has the most important superstation, relieved a major cause of owner disunity. Many owners complained that the showing of Braves’ games on cable systems in their areas had hurt their teams’ attendance.

“We’ve long had a rule that each team controls broadcast rights in his own area,” Ueberroth said. “But in the last nine years, this has been ignored. The government let it happen and we couldn’t do anything about it.”

Now, he said, if all the teams come to terms, it will mean $10 million a year to be shared among all 26 teams, the paying teams sharing as well. That would work out to about $385,000 a club. The terms of the first agreements are five years.

On the matter of night games in Wrigley Field, Ueberroth said that he had little choice, for organized baseball is contractually obligated to the ABC and NBC television networks to hold playoff and World Series games in prime time. If the contract is broken, baseball must pay the networks a rebate for their advertising revenue losses. In addition, he said, he feels obliged to millions of fans who might not be able to watch the games if they are played during the day.

What does he think of his job now that he’s had it four months?

“I’ve found it to be more difficult than I expected,” he said. “But I enjoy the challenge.”

He indicated that he plans more strong action in the near future.

“It’s been some time since a commissioner overruled something under the clause giving the right to act in the best interests of the game,” he said. “I may be doing that fairly soon.”