Even threat of strike has affected Phillies

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – Unless a miracle occurs within the next 36 hours or so, major league baseball players will go on strike for the second time in the history of the game. No one is looking for a miracle.

Federal mediator Ken Moffett called representatives of the owners and play- ers to New York today for an 11^th-hour attempt to hammer out a new Basic Agreement before tomorrow night's midnight strike deadline. No one is counting on the meeting to produce anything except some parting rhetoric by both sides.

Marvin Miller, the executive director of the Major League Players Association, spent much of Monday and yesterday discussing strike logistics with the players. Ray Grebey, the owners' chief negotiator, kept his constituency informed. Neither side seems to be in a conciliatory mood.

Much has been written and said about the potentially-disastrous effects a lengthy strike will have on the game. As groups, players and owners stand to lose something much more valuable than salary or gate receipts. A strike, this strike, will damage baseball's credibility with the fan. No one wants a strike. But there is every reason to believe there will be a strike.

"People say that a strike will hurt baseball. It has already hurt baseball," said Bill Giles, the Phillies' executive vice president, last night. "It's a sad situation. The players don't want a strike. The owners don't want a strike. But there's going to be a strike. That's what's hard to comprehend."

The fact is, the mere threat of a strike has already hurt the Phillies. Attendance is off sharply from last season, and, while a number of factors can be cited as reasons for the decline, there's little doubt the approaching strike is a primary cause.

Last night a crowd of 25,202 fans weathered a wet, drizzly night to watch the Phillies drop a 7-6 decision to the Cincinnati Reds in Veterans Stadium. It gave the club a total paid attendance of 448,871 for 16 home dates. The Phils last season drew 555,343 in the same time span, which means the club is 106,472 off its 1979 pace.

Our (ticket) sales have been poor, said Giles. "They were good until April 1 (when strike plans were announced), then very poor. This week we have Houston in for a big series. The Pirates are coming in next week and we haven't sold a ticket. This week has been unbelievable. I couldn't believe this week. The club's been playing good ball, we have two attractive teams coming in, and we've sold very few tickets.

"The nucleus of people – the ones that sit in the box seats and the season-ticket holders, the died-in-the-wool fan – is still coming. But the fringe fan, the people who sit in the cheaper seats, aren't coming. We should have had over 30,000 tonight."

Giles, the promotional wizard who is responsible for Kiteman, the Phillie Phanatic and garish home run displays, is understandably upset by the turn attendance has taken. The organization sold more than three million tickets, drew 2,775,011 and averaged 36,039 at home a year ago. This year the Phils have averaged 28,000 and their only crowds over 35,000 were opening day against Montreal (48,460) and a May 3 Saturday afternoon game against Los Angeles (35,011).

"I don't know if it's all because of the strike talk or not," said Giles. "We haven't had real good weather. The Flyers and the Sixers being in the playoffs infringed on interest. And, the economy in general is down.

"But we've gone against the Flyers and Sixers before. I can think of a number of reasons why it (attendance) is down, but I can't put my finger on anything specific. It's probably a combination of things."

Giles is already making plans to lay off many parttime workers and, if the strike should last the season, some full-time front office people could temporarily loose their jobs. "If the strike only lasts a short period of time, nobody will be laid off because of the ticket mess," said Giles. "We'll probably have to add people to handle ticket returns and refunds."

But the situation has all the earmarks of a long, bitter labor dispute and no one, least of all Giles, expects the Phillies to be hiring anytime soon.

The strike that couldn't happen, the strike that no one wants, has already affected the Phillies.

Called strike two nearing for baseball

NEW YORK (AP) - With the strike countdown reduced to hours instead of weeks or days, federal mediator Kenneth Moffett hoped negotiators in the continuing baseball contract dispute would return to the bargaining table today prepared to hammer out an agreement.

"What is needed is a change in philosophies, by one side or the other," Moffett said Sunday when he ordered a two-day recess in the talks. He said the climate of the negotiations had become highly charged and it was his feeling that the two sides needed some time away from each other.

Marvin Miller, executive director of the players association, and Ray Grebey, chief negotiator for management, spent Monday and yesterday in almost constant communication with their constituencies. Miller discussed strike logistics with the players while Grebey conferred with owners, updating them on the situation.

Still on the table were proposals covering a broad range of topics in the basic agreement such as pensions, minimum salaries, salary arbitration, scheduling, expenses, etc. Agreement seemed attain able on most of those subjects last week, but the talks broke down with two sides remaining far apart on the major issue of compensation for free agents.

The compensation question involves the demand of owners that replacement players be made available from the rosters of teams signing "premium" free agents. The players feel that such a system would restrict their movement and eventually eliminate the free agent system entirely.

While the collective bargaining agreement does not include player salaries, which are negotiated by the players individually, Miller and his union feel that the compensation clause sought by management is basically a money issue.

"The compensation question has been blown up in the wrong direction," Miller said. "What the owners are trying to do is drive down salaries. It's like three-card monte, your eye follows the wrong card."

Miller offered this example.

"They don't have to worry about players coming along, saying, 'I'm as good as Rod Carew. I want as much as he makes.' What they worry about is the large group of players who are not the top-paid superstars. These players are more numerous. The savings there would be far more substantial. That's why in their last compensation proposal, their definition of 'premium players' included 50 percent of all players.

"I'm not saying there is no relationship between the top and the middle, but the " middle is where the real money is, and that's what they're after."

The owners have insisted all along that the season need not be interrupted and that negotiations could continue with no concern for the strike deadline of midnight tomorrow.

But the players association feels that open-ended negotiations would not serve the union's best interests and has refused to stop the clock.

In Philadelphia, Pete Rose is counting on "time and pressure" on the both the owners and players to avert a strike.

"If you want a strike, you don't belong in baseball," said the Phils first baseman.

Rose blamed the 1972 strike for costing him a 200-hit season and, at 39, he could lose valuable time in his assault on Ty Cobb's 4,191 career hits.

Rose said he doesn't want a strike nor does he want the players to lose their free-agent rights to sign with other clubs after six years service. The owners want compensation for loss of a player.

"I'm worried for the game of baseball. If it's a long layoff, it might take a decade to get the fans back. It took us until the 1975 World Series to get them back," after the 1972 strike, Rose said.

He thinks one reason the fans will come down hard on baseball in general and the players in particular is the image the players have at the moment. '

"When a ballplayer goes into a restaurant, the average person thinks, 'Oh, he's a millionaire.' But," said Rose pointing toward the field, "98 percent of those guys out there aren't millionaires. When we won the World Series in '75, we had 10 guys on our team (Reds) who didn't make $30,000," a year.

Rose blames the media in part for the fans displeasure.

Rose refused to confirm or deny that his $800,000-a-year contract has a clause that requires the Phillies to pay him anyway if there is a stoppage.

Phils Hit 4 HRs But Lose to Reds

Cincinnati 7, Philadelphia 6

By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA —  As the Major League baseball games dwindle down to a precious few, the Philadelphia Phillies lost one Tuesday night at The Vet, 7-6, to Cincinnati. Manager Dallas Green thought it was the kind of game his team should win. 

“Most of the time we played Phillies' baseball out there. We used the bunt and the squeeze to get one run. The ‘Bull’ (Greg Luzinski) and Schmidtie (Mike Schmidt) were burping them. 

“But this team is always tough to get out And we couldn’t stop them when we had to,” was Green’s post mortem. 

The Phils got two homers, number nine and 10, from Luzinski. They got number 10 from Schmidt. The Phils’ twin boppers are co-leaders in the Majors. 

Garry Maddox chipped in with a triple and two doubles. Bake McBride clubbed his second homer. 

However, Philadelphia starting pitcher Dick Ruthven, now 4-3, was nickel and dimed to death by the Reds. Their only extra-base hits were a pair of doubles by second baseman Junior Kennedy. He also contributed two singles to the 10-hit attack. 

Along the way, Ruthven was undermined by his usually-reliable third baseman Schmidt. 

Mike’s throwing error on a two-out groundball by John Bench opened the door for a pair of unearned runs in the sixth inning that put the visitors on top to stay 6-5. After Bench reached second on the play, Green ordered shortstop Ron Oster walked intentionally to get to relief pitcher Paul Moskau, putting the go-ahead run on base.

"At the time, they didn’t have anyone even warming up in the pen, so I thought they had to go with Moskau,” Green reported. But Cincy Manager John McNamara pulled Cesar Geronimo off his bench to pinch hit and then had Mario Soto start warming up quickly. 

Ruthven walked Geronimo to load the bases and bring up lead off-man Dave Collins. After getting Collins into an 0-2 hole, Ruthven laid the next pitch out over the plate and Collins lined it into center for a two-run single that put the Reds on top to stay. 

“You never like to get beat by an 0-2 pitch, but that wasn’t the only bad pitch thrown during the night,” Green said. However, the manager did not think he stayed too long with starter Ruthven, who did not depart until a double by Kennedy and single by George Foster produced the seventh run in the seventh inning. 

“Boonie (catcher Bob Boone) told me that Dick had settled down after the first couple of innings. So I kept him out there But in the end, it didn’t work out too well.” 

Back-to-back homers by Schmidt and Luzinski in the bottom of the inning on starting southpaw Charley Leibrandt quickly made it a 2-2 game. 

The Phils went in front 4-3 with two in the second. Maddox doubled, went to third on Bowa's sacrifice bunt and scored on a triple by red hot Manny Trillo. As squeeze bunt by Ruthven got the fourth run home. 

The Reds tied it in the third on a double by Kennedy, single by Ken Griffey and an infield out. McBride untied it in the third with a bases-empty homer that brought righthander Moskau, the eventual winner, on to relieve Liebrandt. He squelched the Phillie bats for three innings. 

With Reds on top, 7-5, Luzinski retired one of the runs with his solo blast in the eighth inning off Soto. When Maddox hit a two-out triple in the same inning, righthander Doug Bair became the fourth Cincinnati pitcher. He got pinch hitter Greg Gross on a ground ball to shortstop to end the threat. 

In the ninth, pinch hitter Del Unser hit a one-out single. But then Bair retired Pete Rose and McBride and earned his third save and gave Moskau his second victory in two decisions.

It will be Tom Seaver for the Reds against Larry Christenson in the series finale and perhaps the finale of the local season tonight. A strike deadline by the players has been set for midnight Thursday.