If you are like me, you were dreading that fateful hour: August 30, 2:20 p.m.
The official death of our nation’s pastime. The afternoon game between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field was scheduled to be the first game officially postponed in the 2002 season due to the impending player’s strike.
Fortunately for the dedicated and loyal baseball fans throughout the country, millionaires (players) and billionaires (owners) were able to agree on a luxury tax and save baseball from an inevitable death.
Recognizing that the fan base of baseball would be reduced to the level of Slamball (if you have heard of this, give yourself a big round of applause), representatives from both sides, the owners and the players, worked diligently last Friday morning to prevent the cancellation of the second World Series in nine years.
Perhaps representatives knew that they must avoid a strike when they saw the image of a depressed child at a Major League game a few days prior to the strike.
The little kid, who was part of a collage of fans with posters featured in Sports Illustrated, held a piece of torn-out looseleaf paper with the words: “PLEASE DON’T STRIKE” neatly printed in blue crayon.
It made me feel all warm inside to know that somewhere that kid had a great big smile on his face (like I did) when he heard the news, just hours before the final deadline, that baseball had declared Game On.
The key issue in the strike negotiations was the luxury tax, a tax imposed on teams who exceed the set threshold in payroll to their 40-man roster.
After weeks of trying to compromise, the two sides agreed on a 17.5 percent tax on teams who exceed $117 million next season. Aren’t you excited?
Sure, I could complain about the $117 million and say it should be lower (because I don’t think that anyone will starve if it goes lower) and affect more teams who overpay their players.
You know what? They actually agreed on this number and baseball games are taking place today. So I’ll gladly keep my mouth shut.
Now, our negotiating heroes can sit back and enjoy what they have saved: the game of baseball.
