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

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (5443)	8/30/2002 1:58:48 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Bottom of the 9th, 2 Outs... EDITORIAL The Los Angeles Times August 29, 2002 It's difficult to picture baseball union leader Don Fehr shoulder to shoulder with Walter Reuther or Jimmy Hoffa. But there's also a disconnect when the owner of the Texas Rangers, having paid star shortstop Alex Rodriguez $252 million over 10 years, says the system is broken. Who broke it, the man taking the money or the one paying him? Friday is the deadline for avoiding a strike in major league baseball, a labor action by men paid an average of $2.4 million a year. This isn't farm workers in the Central Valley or garbage workers in Memphis. It is simply not possible to feel sorry for the players. That's not to say there's sympathy for owners who pay hundreds of millions of dollars for teams, say they're losing big bucks and whine that they didn't know what they were getting into. Teams claim to be in the red, but owners refuse to open their books. This doesn't mean their accounting is patterned on Enron or WorldCom, but disclosure could give them a stronger case with players who wonder why someone would pay $700 million to buy the Boston Red Sox when the team reported a loss of nearly $14 million last year. Television rights are lucrative, as are stadium receipts, and claims of losses are hard to assess. Baseball, however, is the only major sport without caps on salaries, and the link between stratospheric salaries and winning can be weak. This year's high-priced New York Mets are in last place, while the relatively poorly paid Minnesota Twins are in first place in their division. The players say the salary caps demanded by owners would decrease the value of their hard-fought free agency. Athletes in sports with salary caps are doing just fine. Baseball does have revenue sharing, with richer teams helping the poorer. The overall amount is already scheduled to increase, but one issue in negotiations is how quickly that will happen. There is a risk that an owner of a weaker team would take the newfound money and pocket it rather than spending it on better players, but the baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, says setting a minimum payroll for the 30 teams would prevent that. Baseball's last strike was in 1994. It led to cancellation of the World Series and left a bitterness that endures. After all, a player with an average salary makes in two years what it would take a $48,000-a-year wage earner 100 years to make. A new walkout would produce at least as bad a fan reaction. Especially in Los Angeles, since the Dodgers and Angels are candidates for the playoffs. The players did belatedly agree to random testing for steroid use. They also have shown willingness to accept increased revenue sharing among teams. A "tax" on teams with outsize payrolls, with the proceeds going to lower-payroll teams, could also help even out the sometimes wide disparities that discourage fans of perennial losers. The owners should allow a longer time than they currently want to phase in the revenue transfers. There's plenty of room on both sides for compromise but only one day left to get there. latimes.com

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (5443)	8/30/2002 2:03:20 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Business Is Safe but Baseball Strikes Out Bush isn't upset about Enron but flips his lid at the idea of a players walkout. By Robert Scheer Columnist The LA Times August 27, 2002 Everyone, from President Bush on down, seems to agree that major league baseball players are overpaid prima donnas who don't deserve the huge paychecks they get, let alone have a right to strike and mess up the season. This derision aimed at the players is a strange compliment of sorts, for in a corrupt business world they are apparently the only participants expected to refrain from milking the system for all it's worth. Why is it only the greed of athletes that is shocking, when we have so much recent evidence that not only greed but actual crime is typical at the corporate heights? Isn't it odd that Bush's statement that he would be "furious" at a baseball strike is far more passionate a response than his smug nonchalance over Enron and other corporations profiteering during the California energy crisis last year? Of course, cynical market manipulations such as Enron's infamous "Death Star" tactic were only threatening the nation's biggest, most economically important state, not the pennant race. Even last week's guilty plea by Michael J. Kopper, a top Enron manager who is criminally implicating the company's highest officials, didn't elicit any presidential passion. Perhaps Bush is a bit more sanguine about greed as expressed in the halls of one of his biggest campaign contributors? Or does he still think his old buddy "Kenny Boy" Lay was blissfully unaware of these corrupt practices? But egregious examples of gouging by those with the power to leverage stock options, loans, kickback schemes and insider trading deals are all too common, even in the business of sports. Take big league baseball's squalid gang of billionaire owners, who maximize profit by holding up taxpayers for new ballparks by threatening to take their ball and go somewhere else and by taking advantage of enormous tax breaks. That's what George W. did with the Texas Rangers when he parlayed $606,000--nearly all borrowed from a Midland, Texas, bank where he had been a director--into a $15-million profit when he sold his stake in the team a decade later. The Rangers, despite erratic results on the field, grew astronomically in financial value because Arlington, Texas, taxpayers faced with the threat of losing the Rangers were coerced into coming up with $135 million in sales taxes to build Bush's team a palatial new field of dreams. Bush and his buddies also used their political influence to grab valuable commercial land surrounding the stadium under the government power of eminent domain. Thanks to those acquisitions, paid for with more than $200 million in public funds, Bush and his partners were able to turn around and sell for $240 million a team they had purchased for $86 million. Bush never did risk any of his own money, instead selling shares at an inflated insider's rate--courtesy of his now-famous relationship with Harken Energy--to cover the original bank loan. Quite a hustle, huh? And those millions rolled in without the endless practice sessions and nerve-tingling performances required of professional athletes on a daily basis. Of course, to earn his piece of the pie, George W. had to show up regularly on the golf links where the deals were made. For Bush, there never was any real risk of failure, and he certainly never had to spend years bumping around back roads eating soggy fries as an itinerant minor league hopeful. As has been pointed out many times during his spotty business career, Bush was born on third base and is convinced he hit a triple. For a kid trying to take the long, hardball road to fame and fortune, failure usually means going home to a small town with no education and few job prospects. And for those who make it, like all-star shortstop Miguel Tejada, who worked his way to the pinnacle of his sport despite a childhood spent as a homeless street urchin in the Dominican Republic, the rewards are, yes, enormous. Not many successful MBAs, the president included, can claim such real-life Horatio Alger stories. In the end, should the players dare to strike, they will be hit over the head with the club of patriotism, charged with betraying national unity on the eve of the Sept. 11 anniversary. It's hypocritical gibberish. After all, who has hurt the nation more in the last year, the company that once paid to have its name on the Ballpark Formerly Known as Enron or the world-class athletes who grace the playing field? latimes.com

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (5443)	8/30/2002 11:40:07 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Breaking News...MSNBC reports the baseball players and owners have reached a deal...=)

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (5443)	8/30/2002 1:46:57 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Strike averted, Cubs will play today Crain's Business Chicago August 30, 2002 The Chicago Cubs will play the St. Louis Cardinals as planned this afternoon at Wrigley Field, after baseball players and owners agreed earlier today on a new labor agreement, averting what would have been Major League Baseball’s ninth strike since 1972. Contract talks lasted through the night and into Friday morning, with players and owners exchanging offers and counteroffers before reaching a deal. The two parties planned to make an official announcement, outlining some of the new terms, at a noon press conference in New York. "There's no strike," Donald Fehr, chief of the powerful players' union, reportedly told reporters as he emerged from exhausting negotiations at baseball’s New York headquarters. Had the talks broken down, the first game affected by a strike would have been today’s 2:20 p.m. contest between the Cubs and Cardinals. The Chicago White Sox will play the Detroit Tigers as scheduled at 6:05 p.m. tonight in Detroit. Representatives for team owners and players apparently reached a compromise on key issues regarding revenue sharing and a luxury tax, which the owners said were essential to level the playing field between big and small market teams. The previous bargaining agreement between the 30 team owners and players expired last year, and the players' association set today’s strike date two weeks ago to force the owners to negotiate a new contract. A new stoppage threatened to further alienate fans still sore from a strike eight years ago that wiped out the end of the season and led to the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years.