A face-saving compromise prevented strike

By Dick Young

It didn't take "a small miracle" as Marvin Miller had said it would.

All it took to avert a baseball strike was a willingness to compromise, to give a little on both sides. That's all it ever takes.

That's how the United States still could send a team to the Moscow Olympics.

That's how war could be wiped from the face of the earth.

In these baseball negotiations, there never was a strikeable issue.

A strikeable issue is one where the gain or loss has such impact that it over-rides all other considerations. Did the owners' demand for a professional ballplayer, a warm body, in exchange for a star who walks away as a free agent, warrant the ballplayers, all ballplayers, quitting jobs that pay $150,000 on the average? Did it warrant losing pension time, and irretrievable career time? Did it warrant losing increased minimum salaries and increased meal money that go into effect immediately.

Of course it didn't.

When the players got their heads straightened, they realized this was nothing to strike about. They weren't losing their freedom. They weren't having their union busted. Those are terrorist words, propaganda words, used for public consumption, to gain public sympathy. Public sympathy is something a striking $150,000 worker has no chance of getting.

As the strike deadline approached, the players began to worry. Both sides worried, but mostly the players. The owners have faced up to strikes in their other businesses. George Steinbrenner with his shipbuilding company, Gene Autry with his radio-TV network, the Carpenter family with their chemicals and whatever, all have been through strikes, and they are not, most of them, dependent upon their baseball earnings.

A Lee Mazzilli, on the other hand, was slightly shaken by the idea that the $35,000 check, minus withholding, would not be there twice a month. Worse, the bencher making the big league minimum would miss the $1,500 or so take home. He doesn't have the fat bank account to ride out a strike. It would be tough to explain to the wife, this free-agent business that might never happen to him anyway.

And so, in those last days of the apparently-stalled negotiations, when baseball seemed to be moving inexorably toward stoppage, the players let their feelings be known to Marvin Miller. He recognized the pressure. He acted.

Miller came up with the germ of an idea for compromise: Put aside the stalemated issue, the repayment of a player for a free agent, and sign the agreement on all other things; the increased pay, the increased pension benefits, the health care, and such.

Then let a four-man committee study reforms of the free-agent system requested by the owners, for two years. No? One year?

It wasn't much of an offer, but it was a breakthrough. It indicated Marvin . Miller's willingness to talk compromise on a previously stone-walled issue. No longer was he saying never. Then this improvement in the event that the owners would be dissatisfied with the study results: they could, it was suggested, disavow the signed agreement and shut down. That is, a lockout.

The owners countered: "Accept our plan for free-agent replacement for one year and if the players don't like it, if they think it inhibits their freedom, then they can strike."

That was the turnaround point of the settlement, the breakthrough.

It transferred the onus of "lockout" by the owners to "strike" by the players if there is displeasure in the future with this compromise.

But not in 1980. For 1980, the free agent draft shall be the same as it is now; No player payment, except the high school kid, the amateur draft pick, that has been in effect right along. The owners' plan, the new system, the compromise, goes into effect for the free agent draft of November 1981, or 18 months from now.

That's why a strike seemed so illogical to me and others. Why do you strike on May 22 for something that won't happen until November? And then, when it does happen, maybe it won't be all that bad?

Maybe it's something both sides can learn to live with. I expect they will.

The Lords of Baseball are banking on that. They have come up with a three-level formula for draft-compensation between ballclubs that an MIT cum laude just might be able to explain to you. At one point, there even is a computation of a free-agent's worth that involves multiplying the total free agents by 5.4 and dividing the result by 26. I kid you not.

Mathematics aside, it seems apparent that future free agents won't lose their, shot at the big bucks.

The lesser talented can move without any player repayment. The second or middle group, can move with payment of the present amateur draft pick, the high school or college kid. The top level of free agent alone will command payment to the deprived club of a major or minor leaguer, after the team that gains the free agent has named 15 players that cannot be picked.

"That is fair to the fan," Commissioner Bowie Kuhn said. "To lose Hisle and Bos-tack and get back nothing was not fair to the fans of Minnesota."

It should be remembered that the original free agent plan, the draft that exists now, was regarded as "experimental" by both parties. That is the word in the expired agreement, "experimental." In effect, the owners have asked for a different experiment.

It is the face-saving for both sides.

It is not really a "give-back" by the players, who had only an experimental system to give back. What should be learned by both sides from the near-strike is this:

Players: Don't be so free with your spring training strike vote, so macho. Remember, when you make commitments, there are consequences to be faced at a later date. And make your strike vote by secret ballot, in writing, where you don't face the scorn of your peers; where you can express your true feelings. That is democracy.

Owners: Take a more active part in the proceedings. Don't play it so cool. Talk to your players as a group from time to time. Let them know your side, so that they don't hear only from Marvin Miller, or whoever it is that succeeds him upon his planned retirement in the year or so.

Schmidt, Phils Wait Patiently, Take Ryan Express Downtown

Philadelphia 3, Houston 0

By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA —  Since Houston righthander Nolan Ryan was having some trouble controlling his breaking stuff, Mike Schmidt was sitting on a fast ball when the count went to 3-1 with two Phillies on base in the third inning of riday night’s game at Veterans Stadium.

“I wasn’t digging in looking for it. I was trying to stay relaxed and get a good swing. A single meant a run. When I try to hit the ball out it usually goes straight up and down into a glove,” Schmidt commented.

Ryan did throw a fast ball, and Schmidt’s relaxed swing lined its way over the left field barrier for his 11th home run which gave Philadelphia a 3-0 victory.

Those three runs were more than enough for lefty Steve Carlton, who is off to his best start as a Phil, 8-2, with two shutouts and four complete games. He has the most victories of anyone in the majors. He also leads both leagues in strikeouts with 69 after fanning eight Astros last night.

Silent Steve gave up four hits, all singles, and the Astros were not able to put two together in any inning. The big guy walked three. Six of his strikeouts came in the first three innings.

“I don’t actually think it was one of Steve’s better performances this season, although I liked the final result,” Phils’ Manager Dallas Green said. "He started out with good control of all his pitches. But then in the middle innings he lost a little bit. However he came came back strong at the end.”

The Million-Dollar-Flinger, Ryan had blanked the Phils 3-0 at the Astrodome last Sunday, giving up four hits and striking out 10. However by losing last night his overall record fell to 2-4.

"We wanted a piece of him after what he did to us at the ’Dome,” Schmidt said. “We have some people on this club who like to swing at fast balls. And he’s a guy who likes to put ’em past the hitters. That always makes for a nice duel.”

Ryan started the third inning harmlessly enough by retiring the first two hitters.

Then Pete Rose, who walked his other three trips to the plate, lined a single into left field. Bake McBride followed with a ground single to right. Then Schmidt sent a Ryan Express downtown and Carlton had enough runs.

Schmidt and teammate Greg Luzinski now share the major league home run lead (along with Boston’s Ben Ogilvie) with 11 apiece.

“No name I like to see next to mine on the board than The Bull,” Schmidt said.

It was the Phillies’ seventh victory in 10 outings as they continue in hot pursuit of the division-leading Pittsburgh Pirates. No one was hoping more than Green that the season would not be interrupted by a player's strike.

“A strike would be bad at any time’ for the game in general. But we do seem to have it all going right now so it would have been extra tough on our club to stop playing,” Green said. “I heard the good news at quarter of four this morning when the owner (Ruly Carpenter) called me. I was pretty sleepy at the time, but waking up to that land of news wasn’t too bad.”

The Phillies will have a surprise for the Astros tonight. Yesterday they purchased the contract of righthander Dan Larson from Oklahoma City and he will be the starting pitcher in the second game of the three-game series tonight at 7:05.

The 25-year-old Larson was 4-1 at Oklahoma City with a 4.13 earned run average. He has previously played in the majors with both Houston and Philadelphia, and currently has a 6-17 lifetime mark in the big leagues.

Subtle Optimism Ends With Averted Strike

NEW YORK (AP) - Surprise followed by relief and joy were common reactions shared by the players and club officials alike to news that a major league baseball strike had been averted by a settlement of the contract dispute early Friday morning.

Most, as New York Yankees relief pitcher Goose Gossage, "were prepared for the worst," as Thursday night became Friday morning and negotiators remained behind closed doors.

Even those who felt there was a chance of agreement, like Mark Belanger, Baltimore Orioles shortstop and player representative, were cautious about their optimism. "I didn't dare become too optimistic," said Belganger. "Now, and I'm the just happy who for the fans, the players and the man who owns our team (Edward Bennett Willli- ams.)"

"No one wanted to go out," said Detroit Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell. "I kept my hopes up that something would happen at the last moment. It was the only hope we had." "

It didn't look so good," agreed his teammate, pitcher John Hiller, the Tigers' player rep. "I think everyone was a little surprised there was an agreement."

Many of the players, feeling they would not playing Friday, made the waiting somewhat bearable by holding parties into the early into early morning hours.

"They should have given us the day off," suggested Jamie Quirk of the Kansas City Royals, whose partying teammates were told of the settlement by player representative Pete LaCock.

Royals reliever Marty Pattin heard the news, though, on his car radio as he drove toward his home in Charleston, Ill., in the belief the strike could not be headed off. He turned the car around and returned to the Royals' stadium to catch a team bus to airport for a flight to California and the start of a road trip.

"A strike would have been horrible for the game," said Buzzie Bavasi, California Angels executive vice president. "The last time we had a strike (1972) it took us four years to get the fans interested in baseball again."

Reggie Jackson, player rep of the New York Yankees said: "If we had a strike it would have hurt everybody. I'm glad the more intelligent minds prevailed."