Ticker Tape Bud: The greatest comeback artist in baseball history?Let Bud Selig work out a compromise in baseball's contractnegotiations, and he'd have my vote.
After saving the game from what promised to be an excruciatinglyembarrassing lawsuit involving the owners of the Mets, if Selig canprevent a strike, he'd go from a laughingstock who couldn't even runan All-Star Game to superhero action figure overnight.
Stop me before I spend again: The Rangers' Tom Hicks sounds like acandidate for Owners Anonymous when he swears his team's payrollwould never be high enough to qualify for a luxury tax. This from theguy whose signing of Alex Rodriguez to a $250 million deal, which hejustified as making good business sense, made so many owners willingto risk a strike to stop people like him.
You can't blame me this time: Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't talk to theChicago press much these days, but he spoke briefly to the LosAngeles Times over the weekend to deny the paper's report that he ispart of a group of hard-line owners telling Selig to hang tough.Reinsdorf said he is not involved in the negotiations, and hisadviser, former agent Dennis Gilbert, said, I think Jerry was sovilified in 1994 that he has made a conscious effort to stay out ofit this time. He has no desire for any kind of work stoppage. Hewants a settlement."
To listen to Joe Girardi, the Cubs' player representative, is toget a real education in the players' mind-set. Girardi says theowners asked for four things--steroid testing, an internationaldraft, increased revenue sharing and a luxury tax--and they got themall. The deal on the table, he says, is considerably better than thecurrent basic agreement. As for the public's understanding theplayers' position, Girardi says he has given up hoping it could everhappen. The players realize the fans are against them. They'll justhave to live with it.
And furthermore ...
Harvard law professor Robert Weiler, who has often written onlabor law and sports, says the owners' proposed luxury tax isinequitable.
The owners of the Red Sox spent $720 million to buy this team,"Weiler told the Boston Globe. Are you going to tax them and give someof their money to a multimillionaire like Carl Pohlad in Minnesota,who bought the team for $34 million and has a payroll of just $40million? Are you going to tax the owner of the San Francisco Giants,who just built a beautiful new ballpark with money out of his ownpocket, and give the money to Milwaukee, who won't spend on thepayroll and had their stadium paid for by the state?"
Oscar Robertson, who filed a key suit against the NBA that led tofree agency and higher salaries, says he was blacklisted by theleague after his playing days were over to the extent that someowners even objected to his broadcasting games on television. Of thecurrent baseball negotiations, Robertson told the CincinnatiEnquirer, There are some veteran players, union leaders, who willnever play again. The owners are going to replace them with minor-leaguers, and you'll never hear from them anymore."
I was about to ask Bruce Kimm if it was OK for Cubs fans to sleepthrough the games, but I see now they're too busy booing.
Probably just as well
Quick Hits can't get back from vacation soon enough: AnnaKournikova showed up at a tennis tournament in Montreal recentlywearing a bandage on her stomach. One theory is that she was coveringa tattoo. ... The Florida Marlins will hold an all-comers talentevaluation camp at the home of their Midwest League farm team, theKane County Cougars, in Geneva on Aug. 22. They might want toconsider an attendance evaluation camp, too. The Cougars areaveraging close to 7,500 fans per game, while the Marlins are theworst draw in the majors at barely 10,000. ... Dear Phil Mickelson:Oh, sure, now you shoot a 68. Swell.
And finally ...
On the Beem: Win or lose, you've got to admit that watching golfon television is a lot more fun when Tiger Woods is five strokesbehind when he starts his round on Sunday than when he's five shotsahead.
E-mail Ron Rapoport at rjr@suntimes.com.
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