It’s Past Time for Baseball Players to Get Back in the Game

Talk about things you never thought you’d hear yourself say:

I’m glad I’m not a major-league baseball player.

When I was a kid, I’d have sold my parents to the circus if someone had promised me a career as a big-leaguer. I’d have thrown in my sisters too.

Now, no thanks.

Being a major leaguer in 1995 may prove more headache-inducing than a Roger Clemens fastball to the noggin.

For starters, I’m not sure I could--with a straight face--picket a job site that paid me $1 million a year. Even if I could, I know I couldn’t explain to my family why we’re giving up potentially millions of dollars over the course of my playing career. On the other hand, would I cross a picket line and undercut the union that has helped me acquire great riches?

As the ’95 season nears, every major leaguer will be thinking those same thoughts.

The view from my bleacher seat in the top row is that the players will lose this strike. With spring training a month away, here’s the way it looks to this lifelong baseball fan, one who doesn’t begrudge the players their big salaries and who has a benign mistrust of the owners:

The striking players are mistakenly treating this as the equivalent of a high school debate tournament, in which each side argues theory. However, the issue isn’t theoretical to the public, it’s reality; and the reality is that the players are making great sums of money.

The players also mistakenly think they are “the game,” and it can’t survive without them. Wrong. The players are “the game,” but only as they fit into the larger context of the teams and the teams’ histories. “The game” is the Red Sox and Yankees, Dodgers and Giants, home runs and pennant races. Five years ago, no one had heard of Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas, last year’s Most Valuable Players. There are high school and college kids right now willing to play under a salary cap who will become the next generation’s Bagwells and Thomases.

Unfortunately for players, fans understand baseball too well. They know what the job entails, and they know what the players are making. It’s not a matter of sympathizing with the owners; it’s a matter of fans believing that players are fairly paid for what they do.

The striking players have tried to convince fans the game will suffer under a new system, but we aren’t buying it. We don’t want a return to the old days when players were at management’s mercy. The proposed salary cap system still allows for free agency and doesn’t limit any individual player’s salary, as evidenced by mega-contracts already awarded.

Some players will fare less well under the salary cap, but that’s a labor-management negotiation issue, not a lofty principle. The entire country is being divided into rich and poor. Millions of workers haven’t had real wage increases in years. Having a group of “poor” baseball players suddenly making only a few hundred thousand a year doesn’t strike the fans as exploitation of the working class.

The players say they’re fighting for a principle, but they’re kidding themselves. They’re fighting for the best labor contract they can get, period. When you try and try and still can’t convince the public there’s a principle involved, a prudent person would ask whether it’s really a principle or not. The players like to say they’re fighting for future ballplayers, but that’s a presumption. For all they know, future ballplayers might well say of the salary cap, “It’s not perfect, but we can live with it.”

The strength of the players’ arguments is important, because it relates to the critical issue of whether fans, in effect, will side with the owners and pay to see replacement players. The striking players say no, but I disagree. I think fans will--at least for a while--because they’ll understand all teams are similarly situated and they’ll make some allowances for a drop-off in talent. That support, however, will be largely contingent on owners being smart enough to cut ticket prices significantly.

So, here’s my vision of the ’95 season: Dressing up replacement players in major league uniforms will work well enough to attract fans. Then, as striking players see they can’t scuttle baseball, they’ll return to the good life.

They’ll argue that the owners will take baseball backward, but fans won’t settle for ownership that doesn’t try to field a winner. Even under a salary cap, there’s still plenty of money out there to lure players, and, besides, owners are more competitive than ever.

The striking players need some perspective. They have a defensible argument, but it’s not nearly as sacred as they’re making it out to be. Give up the fight, boys, or you’ll be watching the ’95 season from the outside looking in.