Realignment, New Playoffs Become Official in Baseball

Realignment of the American and National leagues into three divisions each and adoption of an extra playoff round for 1994 became a reality Wednesday when owners accepted a union proposal on player compensation during the new five-game playoff.

Call it a goodwill gesture by the owners in preparation for the difficult attempt to get the players to agree to a salary cap in the impending collective bargaining negotiations.

“This was not the occasion for hard bargaining over a relatively small amount of money,” Richard Ravitch, the owners’ chief negotiator, said of the decision to accept the union proposal. “It’s a time to be collegial and show we can reach agreement without a lot of acrimony.”

Said Don Fehr, executive director of the union: “Dick can characterize it any way he wants. I’m just happy to have it resolved.”

The players will receive 80% of the gate from the first three games of the new playoff round, about $9.6 million based on a $20 ticket, Ravitch said. They will continue to receive 60% of the gate from the first four games of the league championship series and World Series.

Since their new TV agreement calls for the owners to be paid on a per-game basis during the postseason, rather than receiving a lump sum, the players had hoped to be paid on the same basis but offered the higher percentage--80 compared to 60--as an alternative, Fehr said.

The union also hoped to have the whole postseason pool renegotiated, but the owners elected to negotiate only the new round, he said. The agreement is for one year and will be renegotiated if the owners stay with the new alignment in 1995.