[Andy Ross]

The players and their union are entirely in the right here. They are on the side of the free market, and the owners are on the side of protectionism.

The players simply want the freedom to be payed the market price for their talents. Nothing more, nothing less.

When a player and a club agree on a wage; it is just that: an agreement. There is no coercion on either part. Therefore, the agreed wage can only be fair. If it isn't, then the owner wouldn't pay it, or the player wouldn't accept it.

So, the union's single demand, if it can be called that, is for things to remain as they are at present. That is, a system where a player earns a wage determined by the market.

To throw up examples of overpriced players is to miss the point (Vinny Castilla and Albie Lopez!). These players were offered a wage by stupid owners, and they accepted the offer.

And greed? Were forced to do a job worth $15M for $10M, I would be mad too. Any money saved on wages remains with the owners.

I don't want to see a strike, but I will understand if the players do strike, and I'll be watching as soon as things start again. The owners are the ones who have brought about this state of affairs, and anger should rightly be aimed at them.

Andrew

[supercat]

Many of the real problems in baseball stem from expansion. Expansion provides more venues for people to watch games, but it forces clubs to not only operate with less revenue than they would have without expansion, but it forces them to pay more for a team of players that isn't as good as it would be without expansion.

Why does nobody mention this?

[Tripleplay]

Pro-Football and Pro-Basketball became socialistic to save thier industry, Baseball wiil have to change or chaos will result.

[Always Right]

The players and their union are entirely in the right here. They are on the side of the free market, and the owners are on the side of protectionism.

Oh really, then why do the players insist on a minimum salary of almost $400K. If players want a free market, then why not allow players to sign for $100K if they wish. If baseball players were worth what they are being paid, clubs would be making money, which very few are. Baseball is a mess and it is utterly stupid for baseball players to strike since they already make more than the revenues they produce. The game will be ruined and everybody will lose. Oh well, I like pro Football and college basketball much better.

[billva]

There is nobody entirely in the right in the baseball situation. What we have is greedy millionaires fighting greedy billionaires as to who is going to control the game.

I will say both sides are entirely withing their rights to do whatever they do. However as fans we are entirely within our rights to reject the whole &^%$&*( bunch of them.

[JimVT]

The players and their union are entirely in the right here

I suppose I could agree with you if we were talking about cops or firemen or hospital employees or some other basic group of hard working Americans.

But professional sports are GAMES. The cost of paying these jocks multi-million-dollar salaries has jacked up ticket prices to the point where a lot of people can't afford to attend a pro game but once a year if at all.

There is greed on both sides but the owners,like investors everywhere, are the ones taking the original risk.

Some 17yr old kid in Vermont just finished high school and the Red Sox gave him $300,000 just for signing on for a two year comittment.

If he does well, the rest of his classmates can look forward (under the present scenario) to shelling out a hundred bucks to see him pitch.

Most of the baseball, basketball and football players are level headed guys but there are too many jerks who think a mega salary entitles them to behaving like fools.

I've been a fan since the mid-40s when a guy like Dave "Boo" Ferris (just elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame) went 9-0 for the Red Sox at the start of a season for something like $10,000.

Guys like Pesky, Doerr, Malzone, Ted, Dom D were heroes for a kid to look up to. Today, we've got too many Clemens, Everetts and jerks advertising Viagra.

I recently heard one intellectually-challenged jock saying somehting to the effect: "it's not for us..it's for the kids coming up, just like the last strikes were for us at that time."

Yeh, right! You really needed that second Mercedes.

Ok, I'm a P.O.'d old fart and you can shoot all the economic holes you want in my argument..but..if they can't play ball I can't be bothered wasting any time on the prima donnas any more.

I'll pull a Rosey Grier and take up knitting.

[grania]

What I would like to see is the cities and states that shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to build or keep MLB teams sue MLB. These governments took out loans, improved infrastructure, expediated land acquisition and permitting all for what?...the promise of a major league baseball team. What was in it for them?...prestige, tourist revenue, urban renewal, all centered on a MLB team that played baseball at least through September.

I'd like to see the marketplace determine salaries. Just like the most prestigous corporations can pay the big bucks to get the most talented CEOs or researches, the most financially successful baseball teams can pay more. Heck, I'd even like to see the draft go. If it just keeps going on its own, even the richest teams will bankrupt themselves by giving ridiculous salaries to nearly over the hill superstars. And we'll keep preferring the David and Goliath scenerios where the less known and well paid players go out and get it done.

I would think that this time round the players are smarter than their union and realize that a strike will abort a lot of their careers.

[B Knotts]

The players and their union are entirely in the right here.

Nonsense. These guys aren't manufacturing widgets; they're playing GAMES against each other.

You can't have a system of games where certain teams always have a financial advantage over others. Fans will lose interest. The system has to be fixed.

[usadave]

Actually baseball is not based on a true free market system. For example, owners are actually "forced" to bid on free agent players. Sometime back in the 1980's, there was one season in which many owners made the decision that they weren't going to try to outbid other owners and drive up player's salaries even more. During that particular offseason, there were several pretty good free agent players that NONE of the owners made an offer on. As a result, the players union filed a lawsuit against the owners and accused them of collusion to keep salaries down. The players union won the lawsuit and the owners had to pay several hundreds of millions of dollars in damages as a result. Do you consider that an example of a free market system in which a player only receives what he is worth? The owners decided that some of these players weren't worth the money that they were asking for and as a result the owners get sued by the players union. I sure would love to be able to go to my boss and "force" him to pay me whatever salary that I felt I deserved.

[KSCITYBOY]

I really don't care if the players are "right" or "wrong" I haven't been to a major league game since 1994 though I still watch some of the playoffs.... I used to love baseball, sadly I have reached the point of hating the players and their union.. I hope they strike and the players stave I hope major league baseball stops until the 11 and 12 year old kids playing today are 21 and MLB can start over again. The golden goose is baseball and the players think that by choking it they can get more eggs. Screw them.