In Minneapolis, columnist Patrick Reusse comes to the
defense of Cubs President & CEO Andy MacPhail, a former Twins
exec, who said that the owners would not relent on the issue of
granting the players service time for the strike. Reusse reports
that when MacPhail went to Randy Levine, the owners' chief
negotiator, at the recent Phoenix meetings, he did not get an
answer on service time. So, MacPhail "decided it was time for
someone to suggest to [MLBPA Exec Dir Don] Fehr, the players and
agents that they should not get their hopes up on this issue."
MacPhail, who drew ire from all sides for his remarks, clarifies:
"In 1985 and 1990, there were no games lost due to the strike, so
it wasn't tough to give back that time. In 1981, the economic
impact of the games lost could not be remotely compared to the
economic impact of this strike. For someone to compare those
situations -- to say the players received back service time in
1981, so they deserve it again 15 years later -- is absurd."
Reusse notes with service time, the players will not suffer the
same "financial pain" the league and teams have gone through. He
writes, "That's what MacPhail meant when he said: 'Baseball will
never have (labor) peace if we give back service time'"
(Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 3/28).
