In Schott’s Case, Free Speech Comes With a Price

When is free speech not free speech?

Baseball suspended Marge Schott for making ethnic and racial slurs in 1993 and will suspend her again Wednesday for the same reason unless she gives up daily control of the Cincinnati Reds and appoints a replacement approved by the executive council.

“This is not a free-speech issue,” said Gary Roberts, a Tulane law professor and authority on sports law.

“The Constitution prohibits the government from passing laws infringing on a citizen’s right of free speech, but this is not the government.

“There are no laws prohibiting business partners from restricting speech as long as it’s not an infringement on personal guarantees, such as religion, race and ethnic origin. A business can’t tell a partner not to wear a cross or bow toward Mecca, but from a legal standpoint it has the right to otherwise restrict a partner’s speech. We may think it ought not to have that right, but the courts have consistently supported it.

“The only real issue here is one of remedies.

“Does the major league agreement [which governs the partnership] allow the commissioner, or in this case the council acting as the commissioner, to suspend a partner for conduct detrimental to baseball?

“My reading of the agreement and the league constitution is that the commissioner and the league president have broad authority to discipline on that basis.

“A partner can’t be stripped of equity interest, but can be stripped of daily control. The courts have consistently allowed baseball to interpret that authority without interference or second guessing.

“One can certainly argue that Schott’s consistently bizarre behavior has been detrimental to baseball. She will probably sue on the basis that baseball doesn’t have the right to suspend her or inhibit her speech, but I don’t think she has a case on either issue. She has already been suspended once for things she said.”

If the presumption in the first suspension--when warned by baseball not to repeat the conduct--is that she was advised by counsel that she wouldn’t win a court fight, the same considerations are at stake this time.

Wisely, acting Commissioner Bud Selig and the executive council have narrowed the issue to her comments and clearly stated, in Selig’s words, that “the operation of the team and her competence [to operate the team] are not really an issue here.”

Selig and other owners may privately question her competence, but they have no interest in opening their own competence to examination.

Schott may have the smallest front office and scouting staffs in baseball, may require her approval on any check of $50 or more, may allow office carpets to become threadbare and may send recycled flowers to grieving umpires, but she also has the second-highest player payroll in the National League, won a division title last year and won a World Series as recently as 1990.

That’s one more World Series title than the combined total of the Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and Montreal Expos.

But there is no defense of Schott.

She went through sensitivity counseling as part of her 1993 suspension, but it obviously didn’t take.

There is virtually no racial, ethnic or gender group she hasn’t debased.

Her behavior and speech have finally reduced interest in a tradition-rich baseball city to rubble.

She may now pass out cards that say “No comment,” but it’s too late.

Invoking free speech and print rights, I say get rid of her.

DH DEBATES

As often chronicled and predicted, the designated-hitter issue remains a stumbling block in gaining union approval of an interleague schedule in 1997.

It isn’t so much a debate between the American and National leagues, because the American is somewhat ambivalent about continued use of the designated hitter.

It is more a debate between the National League, which absolutely doesn’t want it, and the union, which sees the designated hitter as creating jobs and boosting salaries and won’t approve any schedule that doesn’t retain the designated hitter.

In January, owners approved a 1997 concept that includes 15 interleague games per team. A draft schedule must be presented to the union by July 1.

A committee headed by John Harrington of the Boston Red Sox will meet with the union this week to present a schedule calling for each American League team to play a minimum of six and maximum of nine games in National League parks, with the designated hitter used only in American League parks, as it is in the World Series.

The union, however, may not approve even partial use.

Executive Director Donald Fehr said he raised objections to that concept in February, to which the owners have not responded.

Ironically, this is one case in which union objections--based on the concept being both unfair competitively and dangerous to pitchers who do not bat regularly--are supported generally by American League managers and general managers.

“Using the DH only in certain parks raises several questions,” Fehr said. The most vexing:

Since some American League teams will play six games in National League parks and some will play nine, some will have more games at home with the designated hitter, gaining a competitive advantage over division and wild-card rivals.

“We find it troubling that races could turn on that,” Fehr said, adding that he sees no scenario in which the designated hitter would be eliminated totally.

There is one other problem affecting long-range interleague plans: There is still no agreement on how Arizona and Tampa Bay will be placed in 1998.

It remains likely that Arizona will go to the National and Tampa Bay to the American, creating two 15-team leagues and facilitating interleague play.

However, some American League owners, having lost both Denver and South Florida to the National League four years ago, still argue that the two new teams should go to the American, which would create a 16-14 imbalance, impairing interleague play.

Said Selig: “I think the leagues agree that it has to be 15-15. The question is, which team goes in which league?”

A labor agreement? Don’t ask.

SUSPENDING BELIEF

Cleveland’s Albert Belle and Julian Tavarez, awaiting appeals of their five-game suspensions, played major roles in wins over the Mariners this week.

Seattle Manager Lou Piniella wasn’t happy.

“I have no idea regarding the merit of their suspensions, but I am concerned about the appeals process,” he said, pointing out that the appeals are always heard when the player’s team is in New York, site of the league offices.

If the appeal is denied, as they almost always are, the player begins his suspension immediately.

Since the affected player would have to be on an Eastern swing, the Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles, in the case of an American League player, have a consistent advantage.

“That’s not fair, especially now with teams in contention for the wild-card spot in the playoffs,” Piniella said, adding that appeals could be heard at once by conference call or a traveling league official.

That way, he said, the suspension would be served against teams next on the schedule and, in some case, during the same series in which the infraction took place.

“In my four years with the Mariners, there’s never been a player suspended in Seattle who missed games in Seattle,” Piniella said.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--General Manager John Hart of the Indians expressed support for his suspended players, but only in a terse release almost two days after the incident in Milwaukee, which may indicate he has had it with Belle, who is eligible for free agency after this season.

--Baltimore’s Roberto Alomar began the weekend on a pace to get 261 hits, which would break George Sisler’s major league record of 257, set with the St. Louis Browns in 1920.

Said Detroit Manager Buddy Bell: “I thought he was the best player in the American League the first time I saw him. Now he might be the best player in baseball.”

--Boston’s Mo Vaughn is eclipsing his MVP season of last year and says he’s motivated by what Belle, Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey Jr. are doing.

“We’re like the heavyweights in the league--whoever wins the home run or RBI title, it gives the other guys incentive to do better,” he said, acknowledging that Griffey is in a class by himself, the “Fred Astaire of players.”

--Some of the country’s top minor league players will be on display June 18 at the Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga when all-stars from the California and Carolina leagues, baseball’s highest-rated A leagues, meet for the first time. Among them: Atlanta outfield prospect Andruw Jones, Baseball America’s minor league player of the year in 1995.

--Let’s see: Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina, a .255 hitter now hitting more than 40 points below even that, says he’s been distracted by negotiations over a contract extension that have stalled since Disney took over. Wow. Some people might feel a .255 hitter should be thankful for extension talks, not distracted.

--The Angels began the weekend last in the American League in walks and stolen bases, 10th in runs and 10th in on base percentage. Former leadoff man Tony Phillips, igniting the hot Chicago White Sox at .310-plus, began the weekend leading the league in walks and was among the leaders in runs and on-base percentage.

Phillips isn’t gloating. He wanted to stay, but said from Boston he heard nothing from the Angels.

“I was hurt, not disappointed,” he said. “My heart was crushed. There wasn’t even an offer.

“They told my agent I was too expensive. They never talked to me. They’ve got some great players, that’s why I wanted to go back. I felt I gave my heart and soul.”