BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : Owners Down $700 Million in 1994-95

Major League owners lost more than $700 million during the 1994 and 1995 seasons, according to financial data obtained by the Associated Press.

The 28 teams had an operating loss of $376 million in 1994, when the players’ strike wiped out the final 52 days of the regular season, the playoffs and the World Series. The teams lost $326 million last year according to preliminary estimates compiled by the commissioner’s office.

Baseball’s 232-day strike, the longest ever in U.S. pro sports, appears to have cost owners more than $900 million in revenue and cost players about $350 million in pay.

Teams combined for an operating profit of $36 million in 1993, the last year before the strike, the industry’s eighth consecutive profitable year.

Losses the last two years dwarfed those in 1981, when a 50-day strike canceled a large part of the season. Owners sustained a $105 million loss that year, not including $47 million in strike insurance payments. Owners did not have insurance during the latest strike.

As a result of the strike and a decrease in national TV money, operating revenue dropped 35% in 1994 from a record $1.87 billion to $1.21 billion.

Players lost about $243 million in 1994 due to the strike: $229.7 million in salary and about $13 million more in performance bonuses. In 1995, they lost about $90 million in salary.

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Veteran infielder Spike Owen announced his retirement after 13 seasons in the game. Owen, the Boston Red Sox starting shortstop in the 1986 World Series, had played two games with the Texas Rangers’ triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City this season.

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The Cincinnati Reds designated reliever Xavier Hernandez for assignment to the minor leagues and recalled outfielder Curtis Goodwin from Triple-A Indianapolis. Goodwin, obtained in the trade that sent pitcher David Wells to Baltimore last December, opened the season in the minors after struggling in spring training. He hit .184 in 16 exhibition games and got late breaks on fly balls. Goodwin hit .333 in six games for Indianapolis.

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Darren Bragg, the Seattle Mariners’ left fielder on opening night, was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma to make room for reliever Rafael Carmona.

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New York Yankee pitcher Kenny Rogers, who signed a four-year, $20 million free-agent contract this off-season, will make two starts in the team’s extended spring program in Florida.