MLB: MLB COO Paul Beeston is profiled by ESQUIRE's Tim
Wendel, who writes that Beeston is "the guy who sends you
softly into the night a little happier than you were before,
while all along you've failed to notice that you've been
hanging out with ... the power behind [MLB Commissioner] Bud
Selig's throne. ... But with another labor war on the
horizon and an epidemic of competitive imbalance threatening
the health of the sport, he's also the guy who is fighting
to save baseball from itself." Beeston, on CBA
negotiations: "We can't afford another [work] stoppage. But
we can't afford to roll over, either." On CBA negotiations
with his good friend, MLBPA Exec Dir Donald Fehr: "The real
goal you try to get to in any negotiations is to be able to
look Don in the eye and say, 'Screw you.' And him not to
take it personally. For him to be able to say to me, 'Screw
you.' And me not to take it personally" (ESQUIRE, 4/00
issue). Selig, on a possible strike or lockout after the
2001 season: "The relationship between [management and the
players] ... is better than it's ever been. ... But we need
to do a lot of things internally to correct some problems,
and then we'll talk to them" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/16).
OTHER NOTES: In Albany, Mark Singelais writes that AFL
Firebirds WR Eddie Brown became the third team member "to
threaten publicly to sit out" the season "because of a
contract dispute." Brown said that he "made a mistake"
joining the AFLPOC because he had "gotten a 'horrible'
salary proposal" from the team. Brown, on the Firebirds:
"When they give me an ultimatum and tell me to either take
it or forget it, I don't think that's what the collective
bargaining thing is all about" (Albany TIMES UNION, 3/16).
