BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Ravitch Dismisses Fehr’s Strike Memo

Don Fehr, Major League Players Assn. executive director, sent memos to the Angels and all players Friday preparing them for a potential strike in September.

While it is the first time that Fehr directly informed the players of a possible strike, Richard Ravitch, president of the owners’ Player Relations Committee, dismissed the possibility.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Ravitch said Friday. “I don’t think Don is making a threat, he just said there would be a lot more leverage for the players before the World Series than any other time.

“There are several reasons I don’t think they’ll strike. Why would he want to deprive the game of the (playoffs) and World Series and turn the public even more so against players when there’s no ultimatum? The owners always have had disunity, so I can’t imagine he’d do something that would help the unity. And he knows if he takes money out of the owners’ pocket this year, they’re coming out of the players’ hide next year.”

Ravitch will attempt to unify the owners during their quarterly meetings Aug. 11-13, hoping to derive a revenue sharing agreement that they will be able to present to the Players Assn.

“Every team has very unique characteristics,” Ravitch said. “and it’s very difficult to come up with one plan that does justice for everybody.

“The common denominator is if they don’t hang together, they’ll hang separately.”

Although Ravitch says he is cautiously optimistic about reaching an agreement to prevent a work stoppage, recent history tells him it may be impossible. There has been a work stoppage every time the Basic Agreement has expired.

“Unfortunately, we’ve inherited a lot of distrust and bad feelings,” Ravitch said, “but I’ve done my damnedest to change the atmosphere.

“Work stoppages take place when one side seriously underestimates one side’s leverage, and I think the owners have seriously underestimated the leverage of players for a lot of reasons. The owners won’t do that anymore.

“The players have always benefited from the owners’ disunity, but I think that has changed, and as long as the players understand that, there won’t be a work stoppage.”

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Fehr’s memo informed players to anticipate a possible strike in September since they would then have the most leverage, halting the bulk of television money.

“Regrettably, it is for that reason that players must now consider a work stoppage late this season,” Fehr wrote in the memo.

Ravitch hopes to have a proposal ready before September, but he also realizes that it might be difficult for the owners to consent to opening their books.

“It isn’t just the players that never believed the numbers,” Ravitch said. “Every owner distrusted the other owners’ numbers.”

Ravitch contends that 58% of owners’ revenues is being paid to players this season, increasing dramatically from the 41% in 1989.