Texas Weekly; The Baseball Umpires' Strike

instead this is texas weekly an un reversible question and answer session between members of the state's working press and a prominent figure in the news here is your moderator bill anderson there are only fifty two major league baseball umpires in the us and all but one are on strike against the owners of the american and national leagues all the major league umpires are more select group and the players themselves simply by numbers are required to travel during the season just as much they say they failed to share most managers' of professional baseball basically the umpires are asking for more money based on the pay a pro baseball players but also always of other sports officials the umpire say they were not on strike at first but when asked whether homeowners to work things out there in spring training however the umpires charge of that the league failed to negotiate and instead what the amount in the meantime a baseball fan so they're not getting their money's worth and stirred shoddy performances and on even calls because the umpires presiding during a strike had only minor league college high school or

even really judging experience our guest on such as quickly as american league umpire jim evans a texan who at the age of twenty three became the youngest on bar ever to serve in a major way a graduate of the everest of taxes evans lives in austin are pressed by western son antonio is mike brittain sports writer for the san antonio express and austin phil miller sports director for kale bj radio first of all welcome mr evans protect his weekly curator jim evans as i understand it the major league umpires average something like twenty five thousand a year to question first when you say you're not asking for a pay increase the high salaries of players because on barstow yuan bars know that players are the real stars but instead sour is comparable to other sports officials what sort of money are us people where were asking for expenses we're comparable to the nba officials nfl officials for

example i can give you some facts and figures on a ten year veteran in the nfl makes eight hundred dollars a day and he does his profession on a part time basis and the officiating football games actually enhances his other port town profession tenure man in the nba mike's forty five thousand a year a ten year man in america label an isolated professional baseball clubs like thirty two thousand five hundred now for that thirty to five hundred and there were two hundred and sixty two games in a hundred and eighty days of basketball official works at two games into hundred and candidates a bad football official works at twenty two games in for five months whatever the football season it and what we're saying is of baseball umpire there's not work college amateur ball to get to the major league level as compared to the nba the nfl of america later than isolate these gags dedicate x number years depending on how many years it takes them in the minor leagues to

work their way up to them i dearly for me just ask you a question will remain silent on what sort of book was a high school land go through to become a professional league major league umpire basically they go dump our schools and once they go tom price goes like they're two schools and for the one in daytona beach one in st petersburg florida and out of boats cruz usually have about three hundred gas competing for lower minor league jobs and out of that three hundred as there might be eighteen to twenty job openings in the lower what we call bush waived the more moderate or not gotten a bad jazz and put in years in a double a triple a macon like three hundred four hundred dollars a month and dedicate their lives to working in the minor leagues with the hope of someday reaching the major leagues and this is something no other sports official does any god it

goes to the nba and nfl as work university of texas gained this and that as a a part time job on this added along with their full time professional job and this is a unique sacrifice that baseball umpires might yet all the other officials make more money than window and that basically is where we're coming from well nba official opinions expressed likes about a third more than a baseball on par with the ten years experience was too much going on in something like yes ford's concerning the strike there which some mention now thought that that when you just sit while ago that they had been locked up like you know says that term has the league of leagues made any attempt to negotiate at all mike they have in the last two weeks a sunday oh not why sunny but the sunday before they sat down for the first time they

sued us for ten thousand dollars a day signed we did not have the right to negotiate and every day we don't show up on the job we shall be just sue the major league umpires association ten thousand dollars a day and the judge ruled that we didn't have a right to negotiate and so then at that point they took a very hard line stance said hey ok all fours were concerns all you guys are unemployed you know and yeah we're gonna go out the cigar buyers from other sources and they get jazz who had been fired from the violate they get an outdoors and all of this for the first that sunday two weeks ago they sat down tomorrow they were made for the ford plant and negotiations are presently taking place ok once you're in you know like the king's stance on this you said sometimes better to work from the backroom them has to be up for in these situations that's breakers philosophy and now by billy cohn knows of any other oh mother in the background chords on cancer but billy

cohn is always in the virgin islands or in the bahamas when we need a decision from we could work for the elders and they've been trying to intimidate and fake us out for all these years and they've been very successful they don't realize what got tiger they got by the tale this time we are very sincere and very serious about our fail you gotta row as mike that we can work for the owner we have made proposals trying to have a portable again souring so the umpires would be represented by his decisions he represents players owners and on parks but he's played only by the owners so now what can a decision do you tie he's gonna my twenties said he knows what's at his grandmother know ok one one final question before going on also understand that each power in the situation is negotiating individually as thirty of reason for this or that a racially was our whole stance since than we have changed our position considerably since the

federal ruling in philadelphia i went and i my ratings i'm proud to say we're in the top seven out of twenty eight years for the past three years i've gone and tried to negotiate for more money they've offered me the minimum raise each year i had gone and tried to ask for more money and the only thing i ever got was a you don't like your job where somebody in the minor leagues we would love to have so now fifty two others got together and said hey you know that problem you had it you know i thought i was really wanted that i thought i was the only person who'd asked for more money so we found that we had a common problem so we took a common solution we said ok you said we have the right to work we quit than they said you don't have a legal right to where they say this in federal court judge ruled that he couldn't order us to sign a contract that's in violation of the thirteenth amendment abolitionists slavery

you know little appetite that figured we don't want it but this is what they've been trying to push for normal one of the things that i'm kind of curious about you had signed a contract now you've put your name on the dotted line with there is yet another contract to be signed by slowing some of iowa voter documents involved here and now and this is where the laser hang they're here legally is that we have a basic agreement which runs nineteen seventy seven to nineteen eighty one and in this basic agreement which we don't refer to as a contract but it is a binding legal document this legal document called the basic agreement stipulates or neon which is how much money get a day to live poorly on a road of blue cross blue shield coverage some cannons scheduling promises you know how they will run you from across the country a new tv time off to get from the east coast to the west coast and all that sort of thing ok that's one document

the other document is our individual contract just like the players say now player has the right not to sign a contract each year right he refuses employment a pet the leagues were telling us and we have in the vigil contracts and we get him around member first every year we have the right to refuse to sign that contract now the league's contended we didn't have the right to refuse it we had to accept what figure was on a contract because the figure in the basic agreement which are struck minimums they transferred them in a month from the basic agreement in guatemala contract and didn't offer a sikh an american race demons what is st george's some of david baseball and so martin like cherry wine and hot dogs a almost a number of them but baseball umpires distracting our american baseball is acting they need to

reform our clubs in professional baseball and my joy to have their uniforms made in japan the baseballs used in the bowl games are made an ad they souvenirs are made in taiwan that's alan arkin baseball is about why mike got over any other major discrepancies in the contract negotiations that you bring up basically not seriously mike when we started this by the basic agreement which stipulates upper dam and scheduling and all of that is wrapped up in the basic agreement and that runs through nineteen eighty one and so legally we were not entitled to open up anything in that basic agreement that the salaries are negotiable and so in effect we had the only base everything so even though that property and the nih injected the aria security and you'll say that that i had to dig into my pocket for thirty

five hundred dollars to peyton on the road expenses well i cannot go in as for more on the road expenses because that agreement runs in nineteen eighty one the only way i can make up for these sort of things is to ask for more sound which i have a legal right to get it well as to preview the peruvian last year with fifty two dollars a day and i can name several cities were out they and thirty eight to forty dollars a day for rooms now i still haven't got to the ballpark i haven't eaten a bike and no i haven't paid my cleaning they'll remain i haven't paid the courthouse he had the taps i mean fifty two dollars and i'd just look it was a fifteen dollars compare with the earth's last month of the other major league official oh well the nba if this was like seventy something i don't know the exact figure they're working in the same cities their home love their work and eighty two games into and ten days so you can figure their home a lot more ham and what is a life beyond our own world view of chicken frighten us players what he didn't take long for all it's

completely now that there's no way i could afford their i mean i had no children of america have a wife but said the only ten i get to see my wife in a baseball season is one i work in arlington or kansas city and then i can afford to bring a route to conduct arlington in the fire of thing that fair to kansas city might be palatable you know but forest service senior western decision about the only candidate to suit in the all star break and loesser working at twentieth three days of the lava come back to the fans of ikea i'm curious as to support everybody saying that attendance is up in major league baseball in yourself and said you're not opt into the game obviously because you're gay but how can you win without says so real fan support was maybe they like our people have all i think as a general have taken his dying rather lightly you know they say well they read about bob where's going after more money than me about the rusty staub cases members seize

arson daniel and i remember all these negotiations in that they think it's just something that's gonna work itself out and you never had a problem gm cars you know before it gets down to the nitty gritty when the grand really gets turf than the season gets going and it really decides who's going to be in those playoffs and who's gonna be in the world series regular umpires of guys who are professionals of the bat but this is not the case what we have done is solicit bids in support of the unions in different cities and they have promised us that once the negotiations with the late mick failing thing in their council writes down they will come and help us make a stronger stand by that i mean they'll shut down the ballpark that doesn't mean fans will be crossing our picket line the fans have right to do anything they wanted it but that means they will have groundskeepers they will have electricians they will have a concession and service people working in the ballpark and now we have

milligrams for many many different unions we have telegrams we have letters of support from all these people it actually amounts to a powerpoint well i have always use power against us now we're having to solicit the power of unions in these union cities to help us with jamaican destroy negotiations on the audience the light on and maybe then you would say hey we've had enough and then you are casting role of bad guys you break off negotiations was a legitimate well it all goes down more doubted definition i think tom turner who represents about one point five million people in the detroit and the united auto workers tinctures afl seattle international council a bunch of people and all the retired people there he said in his public relations statement he said as long as significant negotiations are going out now or who's going to say what's significant or what's not is it becomes dead end negotiating then we get outsourced their supporters shut out of the ballpark

two major leagues a lot of people said that their star quality was gone berserk a few seasons of baseball and the club owner didn't seem to carry that on recent defectors is also a rooster on the part of the year the owners of the club soda to eventually what you guys are just bring in several other non i think you're talking about today's thanks a ton about the quality the players in utah not the quality of art by the quality the umpiring is the basic key to the game is as myself is that i believe that the alpine is very critical to the success of baseball there's been player scandals there been gambling scandals with football players and basketball point shaving scheme says there has never been a standalone plans now they're going out and thickened as artistry the word logging they've

inherited a plan that was fired from the minor leagues on gambling georges because he encountered gambling debt staring off season that he couldn't meet and they fired well they went out and hired him to replace us during the season without any investigation whatsoever i think would provide a very valuable service to the game and it's a matter of ten until they really appreciate the job that we did i think right now the position they're in and they're just saying trying to break his day they're trying to see how long we can go in our guest house payment do i get a car payment due now a lot of places like every other american analysts i've got all these payments due and everything else but i've committed myself also my house i'll get rid of my car and i'll do everything possible to see this calls through because i feel like this is a very justified cause it's more important to the umpire and profession not only for myself for all the other apart but for the guys in the minor leagues we're establishing things now in the alpine profession which gas

who haven't been born yet about appreciate later on if we let them keep dominating and deepen us under the bomb an intimidating it's trying to scare us with programmes in my love i am and all this stuff the professions now we're in a we just begun days to go alone do you foresee a problem that article is that a camel inviting now because of the pressure no i think right now mike we're stronger than we've ever been an on set with a very clear conscience and i sure i'm on the board directors of the major league umpires association and one of my duties as a director is to stay in constant telephone communication with that like eleven guess and guess who i thought might be shaky are red bandana the pressure for stronger right now today and they were marks afford the day before we were supposed to open spring training they are so disgusted and the longer we go the more mistakes management and the baseball

establishment party are making and the more they're going to say that the amateurs cannot replace it i'm kind of curious so i really expected more support from the players especially as the season goes along i know some of the players and said well certainly we will likely guide the play group after your very close knit with the players i know your editors and sometimes under very close so would you be looking would you be asking for help or something that marvin miller in time will make a statement in this statement will be based on the opinions of the majority of the players the players association has six hundred and fifty people in and each club where we get they're fourteen and twelve that the twenty six clubs each employer arrests and we'd been in touch with the player and right now they're just riding a sign that they have been instructed by the club's knocking name names he wanted it in the night and i had been they have been instructed by the

club's to lay off the umpires we realize we're in a tough situation this and that these guys are not professionals they're not as good as the people we've replaced but we're engaged in a bale hair that those mitigating circumstance it and you've got to you know we can't it has all of the public and all this stuff and you've got to go along with this and i had tom murphy is a major employer route for the toronto blue jays told me that detroit last week he said that kansas city whitey herzog didn't want his paint across the picket line yeah well you've got like a name now i can only talk for people who have been at the games that i like in it but that probably jets they had a letter sent down on opening day in march there was a manager the team had to read the letter and it was written by peter but they see the general

manager and he said you just basically what i just read it you gotta go along with a situation where i'm trying to handle a stuff and go along with that where the players said ok will go along with it but they're being fed up with it now it was one thing in spring training but now its championship like that is to say that that became able to get that mean the same thing as that game october the first elaine may i worked a tag team i shared between the boston red sox and the new york yankees they call me and is one floor apart when the league ended up an attack they called me in to work in boston in new york now that one game in boston or new york you to one had won that game able to arevalo month or whatever that they lost a playoff game in october right if the negotiations to break off as you said it might happen and you get other unions do you expect the players to support all we have tremendous player support right now the players believe me are fed up and savored the cincinnati

reds have all signed a petition saying we going get involved by billy collins a word the thigh you know billy didn't want to get involved in something like that so billy cohn has not gotten involved but then he went on national tv mbc tv two weeks ago and challenge going to get involve the red said these guys are farm our leaders they're amateur around bars and let's get the tango and thousands of injuries maybe i will i'm guessing to trade for weights that would be not the fact that they're sitting down negotiating is as of arrow very favorable factor in my mind i don't care what figures they come up with the fact that they're sitting down at the bargaining table and talking they have even at their own suggestion open up the basic

agreement they have at this point offered us more premium which we weren't asking for they've offered a man with more than five years experience a week after the season which we were asking for and they've offered to raise salaries a very tiny bit so i spent like ten percent they were set for the next three years ten percent they share ten percent next year thirty percent over that's three years and i'm trying to think of it no definitely we try to get barry would be in the eye what we're trying to do is make up for all the years that we do not put down so percentages are very on unfair in this situation as a anyone ever come up with the idea of trying to reunite for again basis for analog to have left iran sergeant lemons were out of time and again as various as i was the migrants onto an express film or a failed vj really lost joining us on the line and you've been

listening to texas weekly an unrehearsed question and answer session between members of the texas press corps and a prominent figure in the news texas weekly is produced by katie fm npr and tv and distributed by communication center university of texas at austin this is the long war and radio networks studies show it