Hypocrite Hicks

Owner's comments underscore baseball's (anti)trust problem

What's wrong with baseball? There isn't enough room in cyberspace to attack that question, though over the last two years Bud Selig and some of his friends in the ownership ranks have done a pretty good job of telling us why their sport is barely worth watching. Baseball's biggest problem, though -- and the main reason a new labor deal won't be struck without a strike -- can be summed up in two words: Tom Hicks.

Not that Hicks, the Texas Rangers owner, is necessarily a bad guy. He's an accomplished businessman, and many of his players have raved about how personable he is and how committed he is to winning. But Hicks' comments last weekend, a day after the union announced its Aug. 30 strike date, perfectly captured why players and owners can never sit down and peacefully decide how to split the billions of dollars baseball rakes in. It's not about luxury taxes or shared revenues, preserving the free market or creating competitive balance. It's about trust -- specifically, the lack of it between players and owners.

In case you missed it, Hicks announced that he was prepared to dig in for an extended fight if players walk out next Friday, and that he fantasized about a stringent limit on player salaries. "If they do choose to go on strike, I'm confident ownership will not allow a repeat of 1994," Hicks told the Dallas Morning News. "For the good of baseball, we need to have cost-containment and competitive balance. ... I think a lot of owners would have a preference for a hard salary cap like football has. That would probably be better for baseball."

Hicks went on to comment on the the combined salary level at which a luxury tax would kick in. (The owners' latest proposal puts it at $102 million.) "Every team in baseball that has any kind of business sense would try to manage its payroll to stay under that tax threshold. There might be one or two that wouldn't, but that's a decision those teams have to make. ... If this system is implemented, the Texas Rangers will be under the threshold."

In other words, the luxury tax would act as a de facto salary cap. Just like that, Hicks did more to galvanize the union than a million Don Fehr memos could. For one thing, listening to Hicks rail against spiralling salaries is a bit like hearing Ben and Jerry criticize the rising obesity rate. Hicks is part of the problem. Less than two years ago, remember, the Rangers owner handed Alex Rodriguez a 10-year, $252 million contract, $100 million more than the superstar shortstop could have gotten anywhere else. It's a little late for Hicks to plead poverty; until that contract is paid off, better that he leave the whining to cash-strapped teams like the Royals and Pirates.

Hicks damaged more than his own credibility. The owners have spent much of their negotiating and public relations energy trying to convince the world that revenue sharing and a luxury tax would not constitute a salary cap. Players have scoffed at that notion. As far as they're concerned, Hicks' outburst exposed the owners' true intentions and confirmed suspicions that management has been playing a shell game with the union.

Neither side can claim the moral high ground in this mess, but it's hard to blame the players for being skeptical. Over the years owners have done little to engender the players' trust, from the collusion cases of the mid-1980s to their refusal to fully open their books and disclose just how dire the financial straits are for many teams. Fans who have followed the negotiations will wonder why, with the sides separated by a few million dollars in their tax and revenue sharing proposals, a deal can't be hammered out. It's because, in a grudge match, numbers don't matter. Perceptions do and, even with an agreement tantalizingly close, players still believe their adversaries haven't been completely honest with them.

Of course, honesty may not be the best policy. If what Hicks said last week is true for most of his peers, players and owners may be even further apart than we think. Get ready for a long winter.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the baseball beat for the magazine. Touching Base appears every week on CNNSI.com

 

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