Despite The Strike, Phillies Stick Together

CLEARWATER. Fla. (AP) — All 32 players in the Philadelphia Phillies spring training camp took part in the team's first workout Thursday since baseball's Players Association struck the balance of the exhibition season.

"Naturally, it is very encouraging." said first year manager Green. "I think it's super. It shows our guys have the same dedication to realize the goal we're after this season.

"I'm proud and pleased. I hope the fans of Philadelphia react to something like this. The players are showing the fans they're trying to stay together and to do something as a team.”

The day began with a team meeting called by Phillies' owner Ruly Carpenter at 10 a.m. in the clubhouse at Jack Russell Stadium. Carpenter spoke to the team for some 30 minutes.

"I just went over the directions had received yesterday (Wednesday) from Ray Grebey's office," Carpenter said. "I spoke of some of the problems other camps have had and I said I hoped this team would stay together."

Under the management directive, the workouts are optional. The players are on their own expenses until the team returns to Philadelphia for the opening of the season. The club is scheduled to fly to Philadelphia next Wednesday.

There will be a workout Thursday, and on Friday, April 11, the Phillies meet the Montreal Expos.

The Phillies also announced that Nino Espinosa, a member of last year's starting pitching rotation, had been placed on the 21-day disabled list. Espinosa, a 14-game winner last season, has an irritation of the pitching shoulder and has thrown little more than two innings all spring.

Reliever Warren Brusstar, also out with a shoulder problem, is being sent to Oklahoma City to see an orthopedic specialist for further evaluation. He'll be examined next Thursday by Dr. William Granna.

SportopicS:  Three Points For Labor

By John W. Smith, Asst. Sports Editor

CLEARWATER — Who's to blame for the baseball players' walkout, which is vying for the nation's attention with the potential host-age walkout in Iran?

Bob Boone, the National League player representative, has no illusions about what the fans will think.

"I don't realistically believe that the fans will take the players' side," he said Wednesday morning. "They're gonna hate Bob Boone whether I'm right or wrong, because I'm not playing. We're kidding ourselves if we think we can sway all the fans in our favor. I definitely expect to get booed.

"I'm gonna do everything I can to explain to the general public that here is the reason why we're right. But I'm only kidding myself if I think I can do that. There's no way I can."

As in most labor disputes, there are defi-nitely no blacks and whites in this situation, but shades of gray. Both sides can share some of the guilt for the silent spring.

The feeling here, though, is that the players have more points on their side than most people realize.

It should be emphasized that the dispute is not directly over money. Individual clubs control player contracts. But what did the man returning tickets at St. Petersburg's Al Lang Field say Wednesday? "The people are squawking about the players, saying they're making enough money."

Many Not Overpaid

However, money is an issue indirectly in the main point (compensation for free-agent losses) and figures in lesser points, especially minimum salary.

In the players' corner is the fact that they were underpaid for years. and even now many of them are not overpaid (granted, some of them are). If you are among the best 750 in the nation at what you do, you should command a high salary.

This is especially true when your presence generates additional revenue, because of being in an entertainment medium, and when there's no doubt you're better than those immediately below you, because of the presence of objective standards.

(If you argue against big salaries for stars, it would be safer to argue against big salaries for corporation heads. Maybe a junior vice president could do as good a job as the president, but an AAA player can't do as good a job as an all-star).

Secondly, the owners are trying to take back what they gave in 1976 — the right of the players to declare for free agency without worrying that those who might bid for their services will be scared off by the compensation they'd have to give to the old club.

In no labor-management situation does management take back concessions already granted — unless the corporation is about to go bankrupt. While baseball has some fears for the future, it did all right last year. (If it didn't, let baseball open the books.)

Thirdly, the owners are trying to get the players to do for them what they can't do for themselves — keep salaries from escalating too fast. Why have they gone up so much? Be-cause the free-agent offers were so high that the salaries of others had to be raised to keep them from going that route. The players are right when they claim they shouldn't have to pay for the owners' lack of restraint.

The owners haven't done much sensible negotiating yet, as well. The players have done somewhat better. 

Compensation Needed

However, the players shouldn't claim that no free-agent compensation is needed, just because the crisis in lack of competitive balance hasn't arrived yet. That's being short-sighted.

They should allow management to take back concessions somewhat, because of the huge concessions management has given them in the salary area — assuming they also get additional benefits in less critical areas.

So to give back something already won would be unique for labor. But it was unique last year for labor to play when another union (the umpires) was on strike.

The compensation should not be so great, of course, that the players' liberty is threatened — just enough for fairness and balance.

How about the 26th man on a roster, in-stead of the 16th, as the owners propose? Or the 16th only if a superstar goes?

And if the players and owners are really as public relations-minded as they insist, how about some joint concessions that would make more pension benefits available to the ex-players who never got to share the wealth?

2 R-Phils Promoted

By John W. Smith, Asst. Sports Editor

CLEARWATER, Fla. – The Philadelphia Phillies are going with youth and promise over experience in 1980.

In a somewhat surprise move this morning, the Phillies finalized their 25-man roster by adding two players who were in Reading all last year – pitcher Scott Munninghoff and outfielder George Vukovich.

Also added were infielder Luis Aguayo, who played at Reading all of 1978, and former Reading Phil John Vukovich, a veteran infielder.

Others opening the season with Philadelphia for the first time will be pitchers Dickie Noles and Kevin Saucier, who were promoted to Philadelphia from Oklahoma City last year at midseason; reliever Lerrin LaGrow, a free-agent pickup from the Dodgers; and catcher Keith Moreland, also up from Oklahoma City.

Noles, Saucier and Moreland are all former Reading Phils.

The other rookie on the team is outfielder Lonnie Smith, who started at Philadelphia last year, but spent most of the season at O.C.

Places for the newcomers were made by cutting pitchers Doug Bird and Rawly Eastwick and outfielder Mike Anderson, and disabling pitchers Nino Espinosa and Warren Brusstar. Still in limbo is 26th man Bud Harrelson, who will either be disabled or cut.

Baseball Meetings Scheduled

NEW YORK (AP) – Outside, on a busy midtown Manhattan street, two models dressed as Easter bunnies handed out chocolate eggs and jelly beans while a Dixieland band serenaded New Yorkers stranded by the city’s mass transit strike.

Inside, negotiators for management and the players attacked the baseball strike without benefit of those springtime goodies.

They did have federal mediator Kenneth Moffett, however, and he presided over two hours of meetings that he called “fruitful.”

Moffett and the two sides set up a schedule of seven meetings over the next three weeks in an effort to settle the dispute that wiped out the final 92 games of the spring training exhibition season and threatens to interrupt the regular season just before Memorial Day.

The first meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday – one day before the start of the regular season. The players, who halted exhibition play starting Wednesday, have agreed to return for the openers but vowed to walk out again if an agreement is not reached by midnight, May 22.

“The mere fact that the parties have agreed to a schedule of meetings is a good sign,” Moffett said. “I’d say we made progress and that it was a fruitful meeting.”

But the two sides did not discuss issues on Thursday, only dates and logistics for future talks.

“This was an agenda-setting day and we look forward to the bargaining,” said Ray Grebey, chief negotiator for management. “You know we said way back before this started that we felt baseball could be played and negotiations could take place in parallel and we’ll go ahead from there.”

Marvin Miller, executive director of the Major League Players Association, seemed hopeful.

“We have seven weeks and we’ll do our best,” Miller said. “The action of the players in Dallas Tuesday set the stage for this.”

Part of the explanation the players offered when they announced their dual-date strike was that they wanted to leave sufficient time for bargaining.

Miller said Thursday’s meeting took the form of updating as well as schedule-setting.

“We reviewed where we are and gave formal notification of the action the board took,” the union leader said. “There was some small discussion of what is going on in spring training now.”

That seems to vary from camp to camp.

Some teams have continued informal workouts with players who remained on hand while others are biding their time, waiting for Opening Day.

The New York Yankees, most of whom remained in the team’s Fort Lauderdale, Fla., base, refused Manager Dick Howser’s request that they play intrasquad games this weekend. The value of such contests is to have pitchers work in game conditions.

“I can understand their feeling,” the manager said. “I never liked intrasquad games because it’s hard to get enthused playing against your own team.”

The 16 Montreal Expos who remained in that team’s Daytona Beach, Fla., base at first refused to work out and then reversed themselves and practiced. A dozen Expos have left camp and catcher Gary Carter thought he knew why.

“It was a confusing time for everyone because I don’t think any of us thought the strike was going to occur like this,” Carter said. “I guess a lot of them had predetermined plans. They had made up their minds that if a strike broke, they were going to go home.”

Injured Andre Thornton and Cliff Johnson were the only Cleveland players to pass up that team’s workout.

“I can’t see coming to spring training for four weeks and then having everything go down the drain,” said Wayne Garland, the Indians’ player representative.

The Chicago White Sox were missing two regulars, outfielder Claudell Washington and infielder Jim Morrison, as well as reserve outfielder Thad Bosley for their workout.

Manager Gene Mauch talked the Minnesota Twins into staying in camp as a unit. “There were no theatrics,” said Mauch. “I told them I thought they’d reached a finely honed edge and that I’d hate to see them lose that.”

After Mauch spoke to them, the Twins decided to remain in their Orlando, Fla., camp.

Espinosa Disabled

CLEARWATER. Fla. (AP) — Nino Espinosa, a member of last year's starting pitching rotation, had been placed on the 21-day disabled list, the National League Club announced.

Espinosa, a 14-game winner last season, has an irritation of the pitching shoulder and has thrown little more than two innings all spring, the team said Thursday.

Reliever Warren Brusstar, also out with a shoulder problem, is being sent to Oklahoma City to see an orthopedic specialist for further evaluation. He'll be examined next Thursday by Dr. William Granna.  Brusstar has no fractures according to X-rays taken earlier in the week.  He miss practically all of last season.

With Espinosa on the disabled list, the Phillies’ roster is down to 30 players.  Five have to be dropped before opening day.