Clinton Tells Owners, Players To ‘Play Ball’

President Clinton intervened in the major league baseball strike Thursday, directing federal mediator Bill Usery to call players and owners back into negotiations that have been stalled since Dec. 22.

If agreement is not in sight by Feb. 6, Usery should recommend his own solution, Clinton said.

“America has been living without baseball for far too long,” the president said in a statement issued by the White House. “It’s time to play ball.”

The real impact of Clinton’s action is only to step up public pressure on players and owners to reach a deal because Usery lacks legal authority to do more than make recommendations. “It’s still up to the players and owners to reach an agreement,” said a top Labor Department official.

Nevertheless, Clinton’s use of the presidency’s “bully pulpit” powers of persuasion less than one month before spring training is to begin could spark a breakthrough toward ending the longest strike in baseball history. Players walked out Aug. 12.

Leaders of both sides welcomed Clinton’s call, and the players and owners pledged to resume negotiations immediately and to continue them as long as necessary. But they also rigidly refused to compromise their positions.

“I think it’s a compelling call,” said Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. “The process needs a jump-start.”

Owners voiced similar sentiments.

“Obviously, we’re very grateful for the president’s interest in this dispute,” said Chuck O’Connor, executive counsel for Major League Baseball, after conferring with Bud Selig, acting baseball commissioner and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.

“The clout given to the mediator … hopefully will drive the parties to an agreement,” O’Connor said.

Clinton’s intervention “puts a little bit of electricity into our bodies,” said John Harrington, president of the Boston Red Sox. “This will get us going.”

Fehr, O’Connor and Harrington spoke before a U.S. Conference of Mayors task force studying how to end the baseball strike. They made clear that no real progress has been made toward resolving the key issue dividing them: the owners’ insistence that the union accept a salary cap limiting the players’ total payroll to a share - say, 50 percent - of total revenues.

“A negotiated settlement is not, at this point, in sight,” Fehr said, later acknowledging there has been no progress behind the scenes since talks broke off before Christmas. “Spring training is in imminent jeopardy.”

Harrington told reporters he thinks chances are “good” that the strike will be over before spring training begins, but he acknowledged he was equally optimistic in December and that nothing has changed since then.

And Harrington and O’Connor stressed that the owners are determined to field “replacement” players if the strike is not resolved.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., got into the act, too, offering the use of his office for negotiations and issuing a veiled threat. If the strike interferes with opening day, “we will have to find some way to empower” baseball fans, he warned.

Meanwhile, a Senate Judiciary Committee panel scheduled hearings for Feb. 15 on baseball’s antitrust exemption. Clinton has said in the past that the exemption needs to be examined, but did not mention it Thursday.

Clinton noted that the strike now threatens the 1995 season and warned it could damage the economies of states where spring training is held and endanger the jobs of tens of thousands of workers.