Issue No. 601
Sports
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29 August - 4 Sept. 2002 Issue No. 601 Sports |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Bull-headed till the end
If US baseball team owners and players cannot reach an agreement by tomorrow the sport, which is dubbed America's national pastime, will go on strike, something which could further antagonise fans fed up with baseball's near-constant fights over money.
The possibility of a strike-ending season -- it would be the ninth baseball stoppage since 1972 -- has been a consistently top news story in the US, right up there with Iraq. President Bush, a former team owner, entered the fray, saying he'd be furious if the players went on strike.
Few people outside of the Americas and Japan know much about baseball but being uninformed never did quench the thirst for a story that pits spoilt millionaires against spoilt millionaires.
Even ardent baseball fans do not fully understand what the argument is about but basically it goes something like this: the owners say richer teams should give some percentage of their revenues to poorer teams to be more of an equal footing, financially and in competition. The players say they are all for improving the ability of small- revenue teams but not if it is going to hinder the ability of big-revenue teams to shell out mega-deals to mega-stars, ie the players are reluctant to have rules that would reduce salary increases.
The players are saying it's not about money but about principles. But it is about the former. Owners want players to make less money or at least not make so much so fast. Players want to keep raking in the millions.
How can a player who makes $2 million minimum complain when US school teachers get by on $30,000? (Alex Rodriguez makes $252 million in a 10-year-deal, the richest in sport and a good example of the imbalance between rich and poor).
Players will not be ripped off when their average salary is a guaranteed $2.4 million or if owners try to slow down the rise of these astronomical salaries. And if a player doesn't like his multi- million contract, let him go get a job.
But it's hard to root for the owners because it's hard to like owners. The very word puts you off.
Owners claim they are losing millions of dollars. Supporters swear they can see this happening. But owners are not opening the ledgers wide enough for all to see. We have to take their word for it. And as was figured out from Enron, accountants can work wonders with numbers.
Baseball is a$3.56 billion business. The business magazine Forbes did a study that found baseball is not nearly as bad off as it claims to be. And even if it was, there are a lot of people out of work in the US and most of them are sick of squabbles about monetary figures not less than seven digits long.
Labour unions in the United States began in the 19th century and was influenced by the Industrial Revolution. They were a response to rising production expectations, increased hours, decreasing pay and unsafe working conditions. None of this applies to modern-day baseball. Yet it appears that a strike is probable. Baseball has a perfect record in labour talks, with eight stoppages in eight negotiations since 1972.
The last baseball stoppage was in 1994. It wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years. Following 1994, average attendance dropped 20 per cent the following season and still hasn't fully recovered.
But neither the players nor owners appear interested in fan sentiment or in winning Mr Nice Guy awards. This is not a PR war but a labour war.
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