Atlantic City Press - March 31, 1980
Pirates Pop Phils
BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Willie Stargell’s two-run single in the first inning helped the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in exhibition baseball Sunday.
The game was stopped by rain after 5½ innings.
Pirates’ starter John Candelaria gave up two hits including a fifth-inning solo homer by Ramon Aviles. Dick Ruthven was the loser.
Tim Foli singled and Dave Parker doubled before Stargell cracked his decisive single in the first inning. Candelaria added an insurance run in the second when he singled home Bill Madlock.
Pittsburgh scored again in the third, when Parker singled and advanced on singles by Stargell and Madlock.
Baseball Strike Seems Probable
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — A baseball strike is a strong probability, said Marvin Miller, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association Sunday prior to a meeting with representatives of the owners.
“I am not optimistic,” said Miller shortly before the meeting with baseball owner representatives and a member of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. “The owners group hasn’t been negotiating for 20 weeks. They are stalling. I think they have provoked this confrontation. Rumor has it they have bought strike insurance.”
Miller said Sunday’s meeting “could be 15 minutes or 15 hours. I don't think it will be in between. And I’m not optimistic.”
Miller and Ray Grebey, the chief negotiator for the owners, met last week m Scottsdale, Ariz. as scheduled to be a three day meeting ended abruptly Thursday, the second day of the session.
“It was a nothing kind of a meeting,” said Miller. “I discovered Thursday morning they had called the Federal Mediation Service Wednesday. They didn’t even bother to tell me. They wasted three days.”
The Players Association executive board will meet in Dallas on Tuesday to decide if and when a strike will be called.
Miller met Sunday morning with members of the Californa Angels, the 26th and final team he has polled during spring training. The Angels voted 34-0 to authorize a strike.