Sunday, October 28, 2001
Baseball insider
Source: Serious labor negotiations begin
Enquirer news services
PHOENIX — It is probably unprecedented, but definitely not coincidental, that the executives of the Players Association and the commissioner's office are staying in the same World Series hotel.
“Suffice to say,” said one baseball official Saturday, “the labor negotiations have begun in earnest.”
At just before 10 a.m., MLB president Paul Beeston and MLB's two chief attorneys, Rob Manfred and Bob DuPuy, went upstairs to a suite at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, three blocks away from Bank One Ballpark, to meet with Players Association president Donald Fehr and his associate counsel Gene Orza. According to a baseball source, they were expected to meet most of the day, leading up to the start of Game 1 between the Yankees and Diamondbacks, and then continue to meet throughout the Series.
It appears certain parties on both sides are intent on making a new deal, rather than rolling over the expiring pact for another year, as has been speculated in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But contraction — the hot topic of the week — is not believed to be part of these negotiations.
As the source said: “The owners haven't even been told what contraction will cost them, and then it has to be weighed against what the union is willing to give them in the labor deal. It stands to reason that the union would be willing to give them more on revenue-sharing without contraction than with it.”
Meanwhile, another source said that, while contraction is still a likely option for the owners, given the bleak economic baseball picture in Montreal, Miami and, to a lesser degree, Minnesota, it's just too complex an issue to get implemented by next season.
“There's got to be a labor deal before there can be contraction,” said one of the baseball sources. “After that, I'd say contraction is less than 50-50, certainly for 2002.”
ON THE FENCE: Tony La Russa has said Mark McGwire is seriously considering retiring. How seriously?
Well, La Russa says it's “95 percent sure” McGwire won't be back. But La Russa has been known to be dramatic.
McGwire is due $14 million in '02 and $16 million in '03, but general manager Walt Jocketty isn't sure ownership would let him spend the money elsewhere if McGwire retired.
CLOUDY FUTURE: Many challenges face Seattle, the biggest of which may be convincing general manager Pat Gillick not to return to Toronto.
Gillick has said he plans to stay. But his coy answers throughout the playoffs have many who know him convinced that he would return to Toronto, where he served as the GM during that franchise's glory days.
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