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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (5265)	8/28/2002 12:51:41 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Advice for the Fans By JIM BOUTON Editorial The New York Times August 28, 2002 NORTH EGREMONT, Mass. — Baseball fans, if you want to prevent a strike this summer and in summers to come, here's how you can help: Stop rooting against the players and start rooting against the owners. Your opinion matters more than you think. The owners are counting on your resentment of the players to frighten them into giving in at the bargaining table. Their campaign to turn you against the players, by calling them greedy and overpaid, began soon after the players won a measure of free agency in 1976. Yet all the owners have succeeded in doing is turning a nation of fans against players they once loved and admired. Which is pretty foolish when you consider that players are not just employees — they're the product. The problem for the owners is that although the players care how you feel about them (they've been seeking your love and admiration since they were in Little League), they care more about saving a system players have fought for 100 years to achieve: the right to sell their services in a free market, like any other United States citizen. This is the system that came about in 1976, after an arbitrator ruled that baseball's lifetime contracts were illegal and that players could become free agents after one year. That forced the owners to sit down and negotiate the current system — a compromise in which the players agreed to be bound to a team for six years before becoming free agents. Baseball's labor problems since then basically boil down to the owners' attempts to chip away at that system, using a combination of revenue sharing and luxury taxes on team payrolls to limit the players' ability to take full advantage of their free agency. A 50 percent tax on payrolls above $100 million, say, would discourage teams from exceeding that amount, thus serving as a salary cap (and there would be no guarantee that the redistributed tax money would go toward salaries on teams with smaller payrolls). Every four years or so, when the collective bargaining agreement comes up for renewal, the players are expected to compromise on their previous compromise — effectively giving up their free agency in bits and pieces. And while you are at it, let the owners know how you feel about the many other ways they have hurt the game: By threatening to move if taxpayers don't build them new stadiums, by threatening to eliminate teams like the Minnesota Twins (who happen to be leading their division this year), by claiming teams are about to go bankrupt while refusing to open their books, and by falsely blaming players' salaries for high ticket prices which are based solely on what fans are willing to pay. And now owners are arguing that small-market teams don't have a chance to compete at the very moment that six of them are still in contention for the playoffs (and two of the highest-payroll teams are in last place). Here are free-market guys who don't want to play by the same rules that allowed them to become wealthy — capitalists begging for socialism, moguls looking for a handout. Place the blame where it belongs, baseball fans. __________________________________________________ Jim Bouton, a former pitcher for the Yankees, is author of "Ball Four" and the forthcoming "Wahconah Park." nytimes.com