Schmidt Homer Helps Carlton Gain 8^th Win

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Mike Schmidt said he wasn't coiled for attempting to use his power when he smashed his third-inning home run that backed up Steve Carlton's four-hit pitching as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros 3-0 Friday night.

"I was just getting relaxed for the 3-1 pitch, aiming to make contact." said Schimidt.

He made contact alright. The ball travelled like a bullet and zipped over the left field fence.

"I'd have swung and missed if I was trying to hit it out,'" Schmidt said.

Houston pitcher Nolan Ryan wishes Schmidt had been swinging for the fences. The Astros' fireballer, minus his breaking ball, lasted just 3⅔ innings.

"I wasn't getting my breaking ball over, and I was wild with the fastball. said Ryan. "Those guys are good fastball hitters. I was getting ahead of the hitters and that makes it a different game.”

Carlton. of course, did his usual disappearing act, so manager Dallas Green spoke for the media-shy lefthander.

"It was one of Lefty's better performances." said Green. "He started out with all three pitches, (fastball, slider and curve) lost them in a couple of the middle innings, then finished strong.”

Schmidt provided Carlton with all the offense the left-hander needed when he followed two-out singles by Pete Rose and Bake McBride in the third with a line drive homer that ironically struck the Astros' logo on the left field wall backdrop.

It was Schmidt's 11th homer of the season, tying him for the major league lead with teammate Greg Luzinski, who had a double for his eighth hit in his last 12 official at-bats.

Carlton held the Astros hitless until Terry Puhl topped a ball to the left of the mound and beat it out in the fourth. Cesar Cedeno walked, but the next two batters grounded out.

Carlton, who has lost just twice this year, collected his 24th career shutout, a department in which he trails only Tom Seaver and Don Sutton among active National Leaguers.

Carlton struck out eight and passed Houston's J.R. Richard to take the NL strikeout lead this season.

Schmidt's game-winning homer came off Nolan Ryan, 2-4, who worked 3⅔ innings, allowing six hits.

Carlton's eight victories make up his best start since he joined the Phillies in 1972. and he was 27-10 that year. He was 8-3 in both 1976 and 1977. He now has 69 strikeouts for a league leading total.

In shutouts, Carlton's 44 trails Tom Seaver's 52 and Don Sutton's 51. It was second this season he has put together three winning streaks and now has won six of his last seven decisions.

Schmidt's 11th homer to tie Luzinski, also gave him a share of the major league lead with the Milwaukee Brewers' Ben Oglivie. It was the fifth game-winning hit for the Phillies Gold Glove third-baseman. He now has 30 RBI, second in the National League to Steve Garvey of the Dodgers, who has 36.

After the game, Green announced that the Phillies had brought up Dan Larson, 25, from the Oklahoma City team in the American Association. In previous major league action. Larson posted a 6-17 record.

Green said he planned to start Larson tonight against the Astros, one of his former teams. The manager wanted to give Dick Ruthven and Larry Christenson an extra day of rest. At Oklahoma City, Larson had a 4-1 record, with a 4.13 ERA.

How The Baseball Strike Was Averted

By Murray Chass, New York Times News Service

NEW YORK — A strike of the major league baseball season was averted early Friday morning when representatives of the club owners and the players agreed to defer further settlement of the critical free-agent compensation issue until next January. Last week the players submitted a similar proposal but the owners rejected it.

The agreement, announced at the Doral Inn at 5 a.m. Friday, was reached less than 10 hours before a strike would have disrupted the day's 13-game schedule, starting with an afternoon game in Chicago.

Under the agreement, a committee made up of two players and two general managers to be named later will meet no later than Aug. 1 to study the free-agent system and then submit joint or separate reports no later than next Jan. 1.

If changes are recommended and the two sides reach agreement on them, they will become part of the basic agreement between the owners and players that replaces the one that expired last Dec. 31. If, however, the sides cannot reach agreement, the owners would have the right, between Feb. 15 and 20, 1981, to implement unilaterally their compensation proposal or a variation “not less favorable" to the players.

Once the owners do that, though, the players would have the right to reopen the basic agreement on the free-agent issue and strike by June 1. They would have to give the owners notice of a strike date by March 1. If the players chose not to strike at that time, they would forfeit their right to strike during the remaining years of the four-year agreement.

"Hopefully, it will not come to that." Marvin Miller, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, told a news conference in his Sixth Avenue office. "Hopefully, the study committee can be productive. They'll be dealing in a different atmosphere and dealing only with that issue. You've changed enough things that you hope it can be productive."

The efforts of two owners were called significant in reaching the agreement.

Although Ray Grebey, the owners' chief negotiator, had said earlier this month that Edward Bennett Williams, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, and John McMullen, owner of the Houston Astros. were not "in the mainstream" of the owners, sources familiar with the negotiations said Friday that they in the end were perhaps more influential than anyone else on the owners' side of the bargaining table.

"They emerged as the heroes." one person said.

Under the agreement that expired last December, a team that lost a player who became a free a agent to another team received in return a choice from the draft of high school, college and other amateur players the following June.

The owners insisted that they needed equitable compensation than a draft selection and demanded instead a major or minor-league player in return for losing what they called premier free agents, whom they defined as the top 50 percent of all major leaguers.

The players opposed that idea, contending that increased compensation would dilute the attractiveness and lucrativeness of free agency and eventually lead to reduced salaries overall.

On May 15 the players proposed that the two sides agree on all other issues involved in a basic agreement, on most of which they were not far apart, and that they create a joint study committee for two years. The owners' negotiators rejected the proposal the next day.

"The clubs feel that now is the time to deal with this issue, not two years from now," Grebey said at the time.

However, some owners, particularly the so-called moderates such as Williams and McMullen, were said to be upset that Grebey had rejected the idea out of hand. Those owners saw the proposal as a way to a compromise that would avert a strike.

The proposal lay dormant for the next week. until it was resurrected Thursday afternoon. The owners revived it by giving signals through the mediator, the commissioner and Grebey, said one person involved in the negotiations.

Kenneth E. Moffett, the federal mediator in the dispute, had kept the two sides talking for weeks when they seemed to have nothing significant to talk about. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn remained the background, working with owners. In the last then hours of the negotiations. Kuhn was said to be the conduit through which the owners and Grebey exchanged information.

"Toward the end." the source said, "Grebey was excusing himself every minutes phone calls and find out what he would be allowed to say.”

Before negotiations began last year, Grebey had, with the owners' consent. established a system of fines under which any owner or front office official could be penalized a maximum of $500,000 if he talked publicly about the negotiations.

Because of that threat, owners were reluctant to make their views known publicly throughout the talks. It was known, however. that McMullen and Williams were growing increasingly unhappy with the way Grebey was conducting negotiations.

As the players' strike deadline of 23 approached, Williams and McMullen began making inroads into the thinking of other owners, according to officials familiar with events of the last week.

Last Wednesday, Williams got George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' principal owner, to go to his law offices in Washington. Steinbrenner had been conspicuous by his absence and his silence in the labor dispute.

Williams, however, apparently persuaded Steinbrenner to telephone other owners from the lawyer's office. As a more established -and highly successful – owner, Steinbrenner might carry more weight with his fellow owners, Williams reasoned.

Although no one directly involved in the negotiations would comment publicly on their role, it was learned that some believed an agreement never would have been reached if Williams and McMullen had not pressed their views.

After the negotiating committees broke for dinner at about 6 p.m. Thursday, Grebey asked Miller for a private meeting at the Barclay Hotel, where the owners had established one of two command posts. The other was at the American League office, one block from the Doral Inn, where negotiations were taking place.

At 10 p.m., the committees reconvened at the Doral and began bargaining in earnest on the study committee idea. Still, though, no agreement appeared imminent.

"As late as 10:30, a strike still was possible," one participant in the talks said.

But following a series of meetings between Miller and Grebey, the possibility of an agreement grew and the threat of a strike subsided.

"From the beginning,' Miller said, "they were looking for signs of weakness among the players. Even on the day we made the proposal for the joint study committee their test of the players was not over. It still had a week and a day to run. But they never found a weakness and they began to settle."

Once the negotiators resolved the study committee proposal. they turned to other matters and settled them one by one.

On the owners' annual pension plan contribution, the owners accepted the players' proposal of $15.5-million instead of their $14.4-million offer, up from the $8.3-million in the expired agreement.

As the minimum salary. which had been $21.000, the owners accepted the players' latest proposal of $30.000 in the first year of the agreement and $32,500 in the second year, but they compromised on levels of $33,500 and the owners' figure of $35,000 in the final two years.

Miller and Grebey smiled and posed for pictures together at the news conference announcing the settlement, but 10 hours later Miller was disturbed over Grebey's news release of the settlement, a release the players' negotiator called "erroneous' and "provocative."

In 1981, Grebey said in the release, "the club's proposal for compensation becomes a part of the basic agreement and it cannot be removed without agreement of the two sides."

Miller felt that statement was self-serving, making it seem as if the owners had gained the compensation they had demanded, when it was unlikely they would. Since the players were prepared to strike over that issue this season. Miller said, he saw no reason why they wouldn't walk out over it next season.

"I think this may well have been written for the owners and not for the public," Miller said.

Grebey was not available for comment on the disagreement over the news release.

Compensation Issue Not Settled

NEW YORK (AP) – The threatened baseball strike was averted after lengthy negotiations produced what Commissioner Bowie Kuhn called “a good deal all around,” but the key issue that could have led to a walkout remains unsettled.

That’s the question of compensation for free agents who switch teams, and it’s a sticky question, indeed.

Under the agreement hammered out early Friday morning, the current system that provides for compensation in the form of an amateur draft choice for a team that loses a free agent will remain in effect for the remainder of this year, and a four-man committee will be appointed to work out a new system.

The clubowners had been seeking a player as compensation instead of a draft choice.  This has been steadfastly opposed by the union.

The four-man committee – two representatives of the owners and two players – will begin meeting Aug. 1 and will present its findings to both sides by Jan. 1, 1981.  If there is no agreement, the issue will be put to a 30-day bargaining session.

And if this does not produce an agreement, Ray Grebey, director of the Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, said the clubs may put into effect their current proposal for compensation known as the 15-18 system that sets up a sliding scale of compensation based on the caliber of the free agent.

However, the players may also choose at that time to call a strike.  They would have to give the owners notice of a strike date by March 1 or else lose the right to strike during the remainder of the four-year agreement.

Since negotiations this spring failed to produce agreement on the compensation question, Marvin Miller, executive director of the Players Association, was asked whether there was any reason to believe things would be different next time.

“All I can do is answer with hope that given this experience, we’re going to get more sober reflection of what is the real nature of the problem.  Don’t come with a cannon, is what that implies,” said Miller at a Friday afternoon news conference.

“The players will no more accept a unilateral turnback of their rights then than they would now.  A strike might still very well be called if this issue is not settled.

“There is a fundamental difference between the players’ view and the owners’ view,” Miller explained.  “The owners say that compensation is just and equitable and ipso facto they must have it.  But the players see no need for compensation.

“By that they mean they don’t see what the equity of it is after they give all that service to a particular club, nad they also mean that there’s been no demonstrated injury or damage to those clubs losing free agents, or to the game of baseball as a whole.  Not seeing evidence of damage, they don’t accept the need for compensation in the first place.

“And so this business of arguing details – who’s a premium free agent, how many should be frozen – is putting the cart before the horse.  First there’s no fundamental agreement on the concept.

How are they going to achieve that fundamental agreement?

“If I knew the answer to that question, we wouldn’t need a study commission,” responded Miller.

Under the present free-agent system, a player who had been in the major leagues for six years and whose contract has expired can declare himself a free agent and go through the reentry draft, where he may be selected by as many as 12 teams.  The club he signs with gives up an amateur draft pick as compensation.

Under the 15-18 system proposed by the owners, a team signing a free agent would be able to protect 15 to 18 players on its roster.  A team losing a “premium” free agent – one ranking in the top half of his team’s players in a number of statistical categories – would select a player from among the rest as compensation.

The four-year agreement that was announced at 5 a.m., E.D.T. Friday must now be ratified by the 26 clubs as well as the players.

‘No Strike’ Spells Relief

By The Associated Press

“I’m a happy man,” said Kansas City Royals outfielder Clint Hurdle, when told there would be no baseball strike.  “I get to play baseball and my wife doesn’t have to go to work.”

Players and management personnel alike were unanimous in expressing their relief that last-minute talks had averted a threatened walkout Friday by major league baseball players.

“It wouldn’t have been a summer without baseball,” said Pittsburgh Pirate Manager Chuck Tanner.

“I’m tickled to death we’re playing,” said Philadelphia Phillies General Manager Paul Owens.  “Both sides had to realize how important it was to the game.  I never felt either side could afford to go out.”

“I was very relieved,” said second baseman Frank White of the Kansas City Royals.  “I’m just glad no one has to lose a lot of money.  A lot of us would have been hurt by a long strike.”

“A strike would have been horrible for the game,” said Buzzie Bavasi, executive vice president of the California Angels.  “The last time we had a strike (in 1972), it took us four years to get everybody interested in baseball again.  Now, as soon as we win one with a homer with two out in the ninth, the fans will forget all the business about a strike.”

His son, Peter Bavasi, president of the Toronto Blue Jays, also was relieved a strike was averted.

“I had a lot of things on my mind and compensation was not very high on my priority list,” said Bavasi, referring to the issue of compensation for free agents, the key to the negotiations.  “I was more concerned about a lot of hot dogs and what would happen to them.”

The Blue Jays receive 26.2 percent of the gross take from concession sales, and they expected to draw around 100,000 fans for three weekend games against the New York Yankees.  That translates to a gate of about $430,000 – and quite a few hot dogs.

Many players had decided to go home if a strike had been called and thus had to change their plans.

Atlanta Braves pitcher Phil Niekro had told his wife he would hold a cookout Friday night in the event of a strike.  When news of the settlement was announced, Nancy Niekro said, “I’ll have to cook tonight, but I don’t mind.”

Outfielder Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees was going to attend Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 auto race.

“It’s something I’ve never done, and I’m involved with cars,” said Jackson.  “A lot of guys had never had a summer vacation, but I think we were all rationalizing.”

Phils Paced By Carlton And Schmidt

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – When Steve Carlton is throwing poison and Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski are pounding the ball, the Philadelphia Phillies look like the team their promotion department pictures them.

On Friday night Carlton pitched a four-hitter and his 44^th career shutout.  Schmidt lined a third-inning three-run homer and a 309 victory was in the bag for the Phillies over the Houston Astros.

Luzinski didn’t contribute to the scoring, but his double, which just missed leaving the park, was his eighth hit in the outfielder’s last 12 official at bats.  Both he and Schmidt have 11 homers, tied for the major league lead with Milwaukee’s Ben Oglivie.

Carlton, who has lost but two, became the National League’s first eight-game winner, striking out eight to take over the strikeout lead with 69 from Houston’s J.R. Richard.

The 35-year-old Carlton walked only three and allowed just one man past second base.  He had his fastball, slider and curve working well.

Schmidt and Houston starter Nolan Ryan (2-4) were in agreement on the third baseman’s home run.  It was a high fastball on which Schmidt was waiting, since Ryan had absolutely no control of his breaking pitches.

“I wasn’t trying to hit it out… If I was I’d have swung and missed it,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said of his daily contest with Luzinski for the home-run leadership, “It’s interesting, and I can’t think of anybody else I’d rather be tied with. For the sake of the team it would be nice if the same names were up there.”

As for Carlton, this is his best start since he joined the Phillies in 1972, a year in which he posted a 27-10 record and won the Cy Young Award as the league’s best pitcher.  His other best starts were 8-3 in 1976 and 1977.

His 44 career shutouts are third best in the National League behind Tom Seaver with 52 and Don Sutton of the Los Angeles Dodgers with 51.  He’s won six of his last seven and for the second time this season has a three-game winning streak.

Phillies’ manager Dallas Green said he thought it was one of Carlton’s best performances this season.  Green also said Ryan wasn’t the same pitcher who blanked the Phillies Sunday in Houston.

“He (Ryan) was wild with his fastball and didn’t have a breaking ball.  It was that simple.  We can sit on his fastball and we have some decent fastball hitters,” Green noted.

Ryan agreed.

“I wasn’t getting the breaking ball over at all, and my fastball was wild high.  I gave Schmidt a fastball up over the plate.  It wasn’t a good pitch and he was ready for it,” Ryan said.

Houston manager Bill Virdon said Ryan didn’t get two breaking balls over all night.

“He wasn’t himself tonight, behind every hitter,” Virdon said.  “I went out and got him because I don’t figure to get many runs off Carlton… but it didn’t help us any.”

The Phillies announced they had brought up pitcher Dan Larson from their Oklahoma City farm team in the American Association and that he would start against Houston tonight.

“I want to give (pitchers) Dick Ruthven and Larry Christenson an extra day of rest,” Green explained.

Larson, who with Houston and the Phillies previously compiled a 6-17 record, was 4-1 at Oklahoma City with a 4.13 ERA.

Pete Rose walked three times for a lifetime total of 1,199 walks, moving him into 22^nd place on the all-time list ahead of Richie Ashburn.