IN what is both a new high for arrogance and a new low in labor relations, October is again in jeopardy of being torn off baseball's calendar.þþWith negotiations between the players union and the club owners on a new collective bargaining agreement at a standstill and not to be resumed until Thursday, if not May 28, the union has acknowledged considering strike dates. One is Oct. 1, the day the playoffs are scheduled to begin.þþIf the players on the postseason teams were to walk off the job on Oct. 1, that would almost certainly result in the cancellation of the National and American League playoffs, and the World Series.þþþ• • • þþ By putting that possibility out there so early, the union has never been so brazenly arrogant in its treatment of the fans who, one way or another, ultimately pay the players' multimillion-dollar contracts. With the treasure of the playoffs and the World Series in doubt, it's as if the union is:þþ¶Telling Boston Red Sox fans not to bother rooting that this could be the year when the Red Sox not only finish ahead of the Yankees, but also win the World Series for the first time since 1918. Because there won't be a World Series.þþ¶Telling Arizona Diamondbacks fans not to bother rooting for Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson to combine for 50 victories and for the Diamondbacks to win the World Series for the second straight year. Because there won't be a World Series.þþ¶Telling Yankee fans not to bother rooting for Derek Jeter to earn his fifth World Series ring. Because there won't be a World Series.þþ¶Telling Mets fans not to bother rooting for the Mets to justify their $105 million payroll even with a wild-card berth that could lead to the World Series. Because there won't be a World Series.þþ¶Telling Seattle Mariners fans not to bother rooting for the Mariners to finally get to the World Series. Because there won't be a World Series.þþ¶Telling San Francisco Giants fans not to bother rooting for Barry Bonds to slug the Giants into the World Series. Because there won't be a World Series.þþ¶Telling fans everywhere not to bother rooting for anything except a new collective bargaining agreement that would overpay most players.þþYou would think that the players union and the owners (who are as much to blame as the players) would have learned from their 1994 disaster of not only no World Series, but no playoffs and nearly no last two months of the season. Among the many questions that will forever remain unanswered because of the 1994 strike, two were:þþ¶Would Don Mattingly, the Yankees' frustrated first baseman, have finally played in a World Series?þþ¶Would the Montreal Expos, leading the N.L. East by six games, have played in their first World Series?þþThat strike turned off every baseball fan. Some didn't renew their interest until late in the 1995 season when Cal Ripken, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive-game streak. Some waited until 1998 when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs in a duel with Sammy Sosa, who hit 66. Some fans still resent that 1994 strike.þþJust as the union and the owners still resent each other.þþThe reason to study history, its professors always preach, is so you know not to make the mistakes that were made in the past. With their current labor negotiations creeping toward another strike that would cancel the World Series, the union and the owners are flunking their own history course.þþBaseball without a World Series is like pro football without a Super Bowl, pro basketball and hockey without their playoffs: no meaning to the meanderings of the regular season.þþBut by considering an Oct. 1 strike date, which would threaten the playoffs and the World Series, the players have apparently learned one thing: not to strike during the season.þþBy walking off the job in 1994 after the games of Aug. 11, the players were never paid for the last seven weeks of the season as well as for whatever postseason income they might have earned. The playoffs and the World Series were canceled on Sept. 14 by Bud Selig, then the acting commissioner.þþSelig, now the elected commissioner, pledged before the current season that the club owners would not lock out the players either during the regular season or during the postseason. The union has yet to pledge not to strike. And it won't, because a strike is really its only hole card.þþþ• • • þþ So the union and the owners remain on a collision course that not only might cancel the World Series, again, but also insults the fans, again.þþFans don't root for a player to make more millions. They root for a player to play well so the fan's team gets to the World Series.þþBut with baseball continually bogged down in labor negotiations, sooner or later more and more fans will realize what the union is really telling them: not to bother rooting for their favorite team to get to the World Series.þþBecause in any year when labor negotiations are at a standstill, there won't be a World Series.þþþ
Source: NY Times
