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I Mt OA I I ALIUIN
TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1981
In hopes of compromise
Owners call for meeting
United Press International
NEW YORK — A group of maverick
owners, not satisfied at the way negotia
tions have progressed in the 25-day-old ma
jor-league baseball strike, has mustered
enough support to succeed in arranging a
meeting of all the owners in hopes of turn
ing a few of the harder heads toward a
compromise proposal.
While representatives of the striking
players and the owners testified before the
National Labor Relations Board Monday,
the owners’ Player Relations Committee
said a meeting of the 26 club owners has
been scheduled for 5 p.m. EDT Thursday
in New York.
It takes three owners from one league to
make a formal request for a meeting of all 26
owners, and baseball Commissioner Bowie
Kuhn’s office has received telegrams from
eight owners requesting such a meeting.
According to management sources, the
eight are from the New York Yankees, Balt
imore, Texas, Cleveland and Chicago
White Sox of the American League and the
New York Mets, Houston and San Diego in
the National League.
An announcement released jointly by
Lee MacPhail, the AL president and
Charles Feeney, the NL president, said:
“The meeting is being called by the Board
of Directors of the Player Relations Com
mittee in order to advise all clubs on the
status of collective bargaining negotiations
and the current NLRB proceedings.
“Attendance will be limited to two repre
sentatives of each major-league club plus
members of the Board of Directors of the
Player Relations Committee.”
A few of the owners, such as Edward
Bennett Williams of Baltimore, George
Steinbrenner of the Yankees and Eddie
Chiles ofTexas, have made it clear in recent
weeks they are unhappy at the way negotia
tions have been handled, and are expected
to try and sway the others toward a softer
stand.
Williams was vehement Monday that the
owners must get off their high horse and try
to end the strike.
“Look, baseball is right now in its biggest
crisis since the (1919) Black Sox scandal and
it is no time to sit by and do nothing,”
Williams said. “After the way the negotia
tions went this weekend, we have to do
something. ”
The player representatives from the 26
teams also will meet tonight in New York
for a progress report.
Meanwhile, the players are continuing to
seek a ruling from the NLRB that the own
ers have bargained in bad faith by refusing
to open their financial records to player
inspection.
An administrative law judge listened to
four hours of testimony Monday and the
hearing is set to resume today at 9:30 a.m.
It is expected to continue for several days.
While the NLRB hearing is being con
ducted, there is unlikely to be any negotia
tion session since the key members from
both sides are tied up with the hearing.
The talks broke off July 4 when players
rejected the latest proposal by the owners
on free agent compensation, which limited
to 12 the number of free agents in any one
year who would require compensation. The
dispute had caused the cancellation of 309
games through Monday.
Federal mediator Kenneth Moffett said
that he would not resume the talks unless
there was hope of progress, and the NLRB
hearing has further complicated the issue.
Presiding over the current hearing is
Chief Administrative Law Judge Melvin
Welles, an apparently big baseball fan who
asked the players in attendance, Bob Boone
of Philadelphia and Mark Belanger of Balti
more, for autographs.
If the judge rules against the players, the
players will appeal the decision in the
Court of Appeals.
The hearing at the NLRB is virtually kill
ing any chance the All-Star Game could be
played as scheduled on July 14 in Cleve
land.
Former Ranger owner says agents
are major cause of baseball strike
United Press International
NEW YORK — Brad Corbett
doesn’t have to worry about a gag
rule anymore.
He never paid much attention
to it anyway when he was a big-
league owner and now that he isn’t
any longer, it concerns him even
less.
When the former owner of the
Texas Rangers has something to
say, he comes right out and says it,
and what he’s saying now is the
players aren’t that much to blame
for the baseball strike.
“I don’t think the players are as
bad as some of their agents,” Cor
bett makes a distinction. “I think
the agents are one of the causes for
the strike. You can’t believe how
much they lie. Ninety-nin6 per
cent of what they tell you is what
you’ll find on the bottom of your
bird cage.”
Corbett ran the Rangers for
seven years. He got out of baseball
last year, selling his interest so he
could devote all his time to his
thriving plastic pipe business in
Fort Worth, Texas, and that was
where he was talking from now.
“I really feel sick about the
strike,” he was saying. “Both sides
are losing and above all, the fans
are losing. The thing that worries
me is that I don’t see how the own
ers can give in anymore. That’s all
they’ve been doing for the last few
years. When do the players begin
giving in a little, too?”
Corbett, who didn’t always
agree with his fellow owners dur
ing the time he was in baseball, is
not opposed to free agency from
which the present issue of com
pensation has evolved.
“If you want free agency, have
sealed bids instead of the way you
have it now, where the agents im
mediately become involved and
create the kind of chaos that has
resulted in this strike,” he says.
“They try to make it seem
they’re looking out for the player
but they know, and you know,
they’re only looking out for them
selves.”
Corbett’s sealed-bid proposal
for free agents wouldn’t eliminate
all agents entirely but would cut
down on the lopsided sphere of
influence they enjoy now. When a
player would become a free agent,
any or all clubs interested in him
would send in sealed bids for his
services and in that way there
would be no middle man playing
off one owner against the other as
is presently the case.
“Many players who become
free agents today tell you they
only want to play in California.
They say they have a right to
choose where they want to live.
They never say that when they
start out in the minors. If they get
a chance to go up to the majors,
they’re tickled to play anywhere.
But after awhile, they get more
choosy. That’s when you start
hearing from their agents. Why,
all of a sudden, when the players
become superstars do they have to
be the ones who dictate in what
cities they should play?”
Corbett points out one of the
primary objects of big league base
ball is to bring the game to the fans
in all cities of both circuits.
“The fans in Cleveland are just
as important as the fans in Califor
nia or New York and they deserve
to be able to go out and watch a
competitive team as well as any
one else,” he said. “The fans com
plain about the owners. I can’t
understand why they don’t com
plain about those players who ob
ject to playing in their cities.”
“What about the fans in those
cities?” Corbett asks. “Aren’t they
entitled to go out and see first-
class ballplayers for the money
they pay? The superstars say they
want to be with a winner, so they
sign with one and make it stron
ger. Then they talk about ‘com
petitive balance.”
Corbett believes the baseball
strike will be settled.
“When, I don’t know,” he says.
“I don’t think anyone else knows,
either.”
Day students get their news from the Batt.
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Champs
for long-
to sign contract
awaited fight
United Press International
NEW YORK — Thomas “Hit
Man” Hearns officially puts out a
contract on Sugar Ray Leonard
today.
Hearns, the World Boxing
Association’s welterweight cham
pion, and World Boxing Council
champ Leonard will announce
their long-awaited bout at a mid
town press conference.
The conference was scheduled
to begin at 11 a.m. EDT.
The 15-round fight is slated for
Sept. 16, probably in Caesars
Palace at Las Vegas, Nev., and
Hearns will get $5 million, with
Leonard receiving $8 million.
With additional percentages,
however, Leonard can earn as
much as $13 million and Hearns
more than $10 million.
Hearns, from Detroit, is 32-0
with 30 knockouts and is regarded
as one of the best welterweight
punchers of recent years.
Leonard, of Palmer Park, Md., is
30-1 with 21 knockouts and has
won accolades as a master boxer
with a classic style.
The fight is being promoted by
Shelly Finkel, whose background
mainly has been rock music prom
otions. The contract will have no
mention of a championship to
avoid problems with the rival
WBA and WBC.
Hearns knocked out Pablo Baez
of the Dominican Republic in the
fourth round at Houston on June
25 to retain the title he won with a
second-round knockout of Pipino
Cuevas in August, 1980.
Leonard, who avenged his only
career loss and regained his title
with an eighth-round TKO of
Roberto Duran last November,
also won the WBA junior mid
dleweight title by stopping pre
viously unbeaten Ayub Kalule in
nine rounds on the same Houston
card. Leonard is the only current
double champion in boxing.
The only champion recognized
by both the WBA and WBC is
middleweight Marvin Hagler.
The anticipation for a He
Leonard showdown has
building for almost a year, ai
September bout will featml
matchup of contrasting styles®
although Leonard abandoneej
fluid manner and slugged ill
toe-to-toe with Kalule, as lief
with Duran in the first matd
Vol. 7(j
8 Page
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