The salary cap is the reason the players went on strike. The salary cap is the reason the World Series was canceled. The salary cap is the reason baseball has produced the longest work stoppage in professional sports history.
The salary cap was the owners' plan to save themselves from each other. The idea was so exciting, they couldn't wait to force it on the players, so urgent, they couldn't help but commit an unfair labor practice to get it going.
Still think this is the players' fault? Yes, they misjudged the owners' resolve. Yes, they should have struck at the end of the season rather than Aug. 12. But it was the owners who drove them to this madness in the first place.
The owners who refused to bargain on any other issue but the cap. The owners who scoffed at the tax proposal the union offered on Dec. 22. The owners who tried to seize control of this dispute by whatever means necessary.
How many times must history repeat itself? The old reserve system was illegal. The collusion to hold down free-agent salaries was illegal. And the imposition of a cap when no impasse existed was illegal, too.
Guilty, guilty, guilty, and still these people never learn. This baby isn't over yet. The owners are like wounded animals. They're not going to fold, not when they've taken it this far, not when they're -- gag -- trying to save the game.
Spare us -- the party's over, and the players are back in command. You won't be seeing replacement players when training camps open in two weeks. You'll be seeing the real thing, or nothing to all.
Orioles owner Peter Angelos must be loving this, but he's going to get his, too. The owners still might put a team in Northern Virginia, not that Angelos cares. He collects enemies the way kids collect baseball cards.
"Look, dad, a Sandy Alderson!"
Alderson, the Oakland A's general manager, normally is one of the game's cooler heads, but he took exception with Angelos' ogling of manager Tony La Russa, and now it's Orioles fans who might suffer.
Such is life with Angelos -- live by the sword, die by the sword. Pursuing La Russa was one of his least offensive acts. Yet he still managed to ruffle a prominent member of the baseball establishment.
Which doesn't excuse Alderson.
Where does anyone in baseball get off saying he'll refuse to cooperate if the Orioles ask for a schedule change to allow Cal Ripken to break Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games streak in Baltimore?
The Ripken streak is bigger than Alderson, bigger than Angelos, bigger than everyone. American League president Gene Budig should scold Alderson, then fix the schedule himself. Of course, he's no fan of Angelos, either.
Whatever, Angelos would welcome such a confrontation, because he welcomes all confrontations, and because it would mean baseball was back. Don't hold your breath, but this time, it might actually happen.
The union promised to end the strike if it gained an injunction against the cap from the National Labor Relations Board. That, in effect, is what happened Friday night, when the owners lifted the cap in response to NLRB pressure.
The strike has now outlived its usefulness -- the players almost certainly will return to work even if no settlement is reached by tomorrow, the deadline imposed by President Clinton.
In fact, they'd return gleefully under those circumstances, because the game likely would revert to its old economic system, complete with the players' favorite weapon, salary arbitration.
The owners could respond with a lockout, but then they would forfeit their favorite weapon -- replacement players. Besides, they might face further legal scrutiny if the lockout was viewed as another act of bad faith.
That seems unlikely, but the owners botched the impasse, so they could easily botch a lockout. The point is, they're scrambling. Even a signing freeze could backfire. The players might again charge collusion, and seek treble damages.
Indeed, the various scenarios are so fraught with peril, only a settlement makes sense. Now we'll see if management is capable of good-faith bargaining, and if the union is willing to address the game's economic concerns.
There's no excuse anymore -- the two sides are talking the same language. The union last night offered a counterproposal to the owners' latest tax plan. From there, it should be a simple matter of compromising on the numbers.
Assuming the union isn't out for blood.
That doesn't seem to be the case -- the union offered its Dec. 22 tax proposal over the wishes of many players. But Donald Fehr had better not get cute. If Clinton's deadline passes, special mediator William J. Usery could propose a settlement that no one would like.
The solution is a small tax that would modestly inhibit spending, the elimination of salary arbitration and the introduction of revenue sharing between the owners -- yes, even without a cap.
Free agency, minimum salaries and the rest -- it's all negotiable. So, negotiate already. The salary cap was the reason for all this. And now the salary cap is gone.