This cannot be good reading for Donald Fehr and the Players Association.
Even using the higher numbers published by Financial World, it seems clear that teams simply cannot pay exorbitant salaries. Teams that do, go broke. Those that don't, go to the bank.
As Mr. Stoneman of Montreal says, "Montreal has had a `f spending cap for several years." And it still produced the best team in baseball. More and more teams are looking at Montreal's record and getting the same message: De facto spending caps will be the wave of the future, whether they are legislated or not.
Ironically, the players say they are striking for the next generation. Young men, with average careers of three or four years in the majors, are being asked to give up one of those precious years on strike. Are their dreams of some day making $7 million, as Cal Ripken does, realistic?
Probably not.
Mr. Fehr can stand on the beach and command the waves to cease. But the economic facts are stronger than one man.
Most of the players have never taken Econ 101.
But he has.
John B Holway is an author and baseball historian who lives in Springfield, Va.
