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Baseball team owners reject
striking players' proposal
NEW YORK, Saturday: Major
League Baseball team owners rejected a
proposal from striking players yester
day, but extended until at least Monday
the deadline for saving the World Se
ries.
"We will have no announcement on
the season until very early next week,"
said the acting commissioner, Bud Selig,
who had set a Friday deadline for sol
ving the strike of cancelling the rest of
the regular season and play-offs.
Owners turned down a players' pro
posal suggesting taxing clubs with larger
revenue or payroll for the benefit of
smaller clubs.
Owners want a salary cap, a demand
that prompted players to go on strike
on August 12.
"Redistribution, of revenue is an issue
between the owners," an owners' nego
tiator, Richard-Ravitch, said in reject
ing the last-ditch offer.
Selig said he was prepared to be the
first man to prevent a World Series in
90 years, something World wars, earth
quakes and economic depression have
failed to do.
"Their proposal was unresponsive to
our main concerns," the acting commis
sioner said.
"It does not offer meaningful salary
restraint, nor does it promote competi
tive balance among clubs."
Texas pitcher Kevin Brown said: "If
they maintain the salary cap [demand],
this will go into the off-season'and into
next season."
A 60-minute meeting between owners
and players yesterday ended with no fu
ture talks scheduled, although Selig told
union representatives that they would
meet again and told reporters he ex
pected some communication between
the sides.
The late-inning attempt to save base
ball is seen as the last chance to restart
the season, which has lost 371 games in
the past 29 days.
Individual bids for season records in
home runs, doubles and averages were
scuttled by the walk-out.
Selig said: "We have to establish a
common ground and tragically we have
failed to do so at every level to this
point."
The acting commissioner estimated
that seven days were needed for players
to train before returning, and wanted to
play at least the final two weeks of reg
ular-season games before beginning
play-offs.
A union leader, Don Fehr, said: "It
becomes progressively harder [to return]
with each passing day, but we're not
going to shut the doors until they shut
them."
Selig has not discussed going directly
into post-season games.
However, many people on both sides
of the dispute have mentioned that op
tion as a possibility if a deal seems
near.
That is not now the case.
Fehr said: "It is clear the salary cap
is still their primary consideration.
"It does .not appear at this point any
thing we said [in the proposal] was giv
en serious consideration.
"They are still stuck on the same old
stuff they have been stuck on seemingly
for a generation, he said.
- AFP
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