For the Good of the Game by Selig Bud

Author:Selig, Bud [Selig, Bud]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 2019-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

There was a little back-and-forth between our side and the union in the weeks after August 12. But mostly the sides were dug in across from each other in trenches, only rarely getting together for unsuccessful negotiations. Peace talks, if you’d like.

The communication between me and Richard Ravitch had broken down, so I turned to Chuck O’Connor to represent us in talks with the unions. He had cut his teeth in labor battles with the Teamsters and served as outside counsel for MLB in his work for the Washington-based firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

There was no way the players were going to buy a salary cap. They did seem willing to talk about a luxury tax system, which was introduced into the talks in a meeting with O’Connor and others in our delegation about three weeks after the strike had begun. A group of players, including Orel Hershiser, joined a team of union lawyers to hand-deliver a counteroffer to MLB offices a little later.

Don Fehr was running things from his office, just as I was coordinating our strategy from my office at County Stadium. There was an interesting mix of representatives from the union, including Michael Weiner. He would become the first guy with the union who built a real line of communication with our labor guys, including Rob Manfred. Rob and I spent a lot of time together during labor negotiations. We just hit it off. He forged relationships between clubs and the union that hadn’t existed before.

Rob is extremely impressive. He is smart. Very smart. He knows labor law, and he is very determined. He was a bulldog in representing our interests. I liked him both professionally and personally right from the start, and he didn’t let me down.

Naturally, the union’s highly public counteroffer did not include a salary cap. The talks were going nowhere. I had warned the union on September 2 that if we didn’t reach a deal we would have to cancel the season within another week or so. We were running out of time because they’d triggered the strike so late in the season.

There wasn’t going to be a deal. I called Steinbrenner to tell him there was no way to save the season. I felt terrible because it had been such a big year for the Yankees. I called Fehr and told him it was time to call off the season.

Too much time had passed for players to resume after only a workout or two. I had been hearing that from trainers, from some managers. They’d been gone too long to just be thrown into the fire if there was some miraculous settlement in late September.

They couldn’t be ready to play in time to have a World Series. We had run out of time to have a postseason. I explained this to Don without a hint of animosity in my voice. I didn’t point fingers. I just said this is where we are, this is what we have to do—make a joint announcement to tell everyone there wouldn’t be a World Series this year.

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