Selig: No Lockout This Season

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, trying to reassure fans that major league owners won’t initiate a work stoppage this season, vowed Tuesday not to lock out players through the World Series. His prepared statement made no mention of what might happen after that, however, which the head of the players’ union saw as a threat.

“Our fans deserve to know that the 2002 season will be played to completion without interruption, and they deserve to know that now, before we begin the new season,” Selig said in his statement. “Therefore, on behalf of the clubs, I pledge that we will not take any economic action, either in the form of a lockout or unilateral implementation against the players’ association, throughout the course of the season and postseason.

“The sanctity of the season, however, is only partially within my control. Since we do not have a new collective bargaining agreement, the players have the right to strike at any time. I sincerely hope that they share my strong feeling about the importance of playing the entire season.”

Selig said that with opening day Sunday, he moved to allay fans’ concerns because he thought “the timing was good.”

Owners and the Major League Baseball Players Assn., the union, remain far apart on key issues for a new labor agreement to replace the one that expired Nov. 7, and the specter of new work rules being unilaterally implemented after the season could at any time trigger baseball’s ninth strike since 1972. Owners also could adopt a strategy the NBA used after the 1998 finals, locking out players after the Series.

“[Selig] specifically limited the pledge to the season and postseason, reserving for himself the right to kick off the same strategy the NBA did,” said union head Donald Fehr, calling Selig’s statement “a tacit acknowledgment of the clubs’ continuing intention” to make changes after the Series.

Fehr was noncommittal on whether players would respond with a no-strike gesture.

“The players setting a strike date is always a last resort,” he said.

Many in baseball believe a work stoppage is inevitable because neither side appears ready to capitulate on differences regarding luxury taxes and revenue sharing.

Players are typically distrustful of management, which has claimed hundreds of millions of dollars in annual losses, and are not in agreement about baseball’s supposed competitive-balance problem. Players to this point have rejected the owners’ proposals for a major increase in revenue sharing and a 50% luxury tax on the portions of payrolls exceeding $98 million.

The union is against siphoning resources from high-revenue teams that they might otherwise invest in player salaries, and is vehemently opposed to a luxury tax that would slow the increase in salaries and player movement. Negotiations, suspended March 13, are expected to resume next week, but progress is doubtful.

Associated Press contributed to this story.