A Strike Would Be No Ball

Negotiations between major-league baseball owners and the players appear to be going nowhere, which is not unusual in labor-management talks that still have nearly two weeks before a strike deadline. The players have threatened to walk off the field on Aug. 6 if no new contract is agreed on, raising the prospect of a foreshortened season and no World Series.

But it may be too soon for fans to worry. Typically, labor negotiations are settled at the last minute. If either side makes serious concessions too soon, the other side takes that as a given and holds out for more. Usually a settlement is reached without a strike. It’s in the economic interest of labor and management to keep working. Occasionally, however, one side or the other sees a greater economic interest in not settling, and a walkout results. No one can predict which way these things will turn out.

But leave us not digress. Industrial relations are one thing, and baseball is another--at least in the minds of baseball fans. The current dispute between the owners and the players revolves around money (natch), with each side wanting more at the expense of the other. The owners say that they are losing a bundle, and the players say that they are not. Who’s right is anybody’s guess. The root of the problem is that baseball has still not settled down from the 1975 arbitra-tor’s ruling that freed the players to move from team to team, leading to astronomical salary increases.

There is a solution to the current impasse, and it rests in the hands of the new and gutsy baseball commissioner, Peter V. Ueberroth, who has shown a remarkable willingness to act independently of the owners. When major-league umpires went on strike at the end of last season, Ueberroth, who had just assumed the helm, stepped in as arbitrator and imposed a settlement. He could do the same thing now.

Ueberroth’s charge as commissioner is to act in the best interest of the game. The fans want baseball. Ueberroth can give it to them.