THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 16, 1995 TAG: 9502160375
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Today, in Florida and Arizona, is the start of the false spring.
With the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball, replacement players will take to the field while the rest of us take the bizarre training-camp scenario with a huge grain of salt.
Today is the day pitchers and catchers report. It is a wonderful American cliche, this opening of baseball. It is the annual harbinger of spring.
Because it is a traditionally hopeful day for baseball, the thought of wannabes and has-beens serving as strikebreakers should make anybody who loves the game feel just a little weird, if not a trifle sad.
Major League Baseball has been closed more than six months. An exciting 1994 season ended prematurely. The World Series was written off.
Now that we are on the rim of a new season, we continue to be fed nothing but more cruel news.
Can the replacement players help take our minds off the rhetoric and politics?
Anything is possible, especially for those who can suspend reality.
One who can't is Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos.
``Even the advocates of replacement ball will tell you it will be laughable,'' he says.
Blooper baseball. Is that what we're in for?
Contrary to early rumors, the vast majority of replacement players in spring training will not be furniture movers, truck drivers or refugees from slow-pitch softball leagues.
But don't expect clones of Barry Bonds, either.
Dennis ``Oil Can'' Boyd, 35, will be in camp for the Chicago White Sox, and former Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Gorman Thomas, 44, will be trying to re-up with his old club.
You can expect, too, to hear about somebody who has traded in his broom for a bat.
Young players, though, are expected to make up the bulk of the replacement rosters. Kids from the bushes. Hungry kids from independent leagues, with more spunk than potential.
The caliber of ball will not be high. Why should it be? The players are being chosen for, among other things, their ability to cross a picket line.
The games, if they ever come about, could look like something you'd see in the low minors. On a good day, they might reach the level of college baseball.
Scab spring training is a chilling idea, though there are a lot of people who will take initial enjoyment from it.
It's easy to understand why. Some fans believe that by embracing the wannabes, they are striking back at the ungrateful,overpaid players who have corrupted the game.
Also, the thought of carefully manicured fields being taken over by motley crews of strikebreakers satisfies the need in some people to imagine themselves out there.
For the time being, fans can see the players as ``one of them,'' something that hasn't been possible for the last 20 years, since free agency sent salaries through the roof.
By now, even the most unrealistic fan should know that he means nothing to the genuine big-leaguers.
But does he mean any more to the owners?
One side is arrogant, the other disdainful. Both are conspiring to create the false spring.
Pitchers and catchers report.
These words should help thaw our souls on a crummy February day.
But in 1995, they herald little more than continued bitterness between players and owners, and disappointment for the fans. MEMO: Q: Who is on strike?
A: There were 763 players on major league rosters when the strike
began last Aug. 12. The union has now asked all players on 40-man
rosters (major leaguers and top minor league prospects) to stay away
from training camps, increasing the number of potential strikers to
almost 1,100.
Q: Who will be in training camps?
A: Minor-league players who are not on 40-man rosters and replacement
players, many of whom have been signed in the past six weeks or so. Some
replacements are former minor leaguers who never made it to the big
leagues or even Class AAA ball. Some have played in foreign leagues,
others have been out of baseball for several years. Some former major
leaguers like Oil Can Boyd, Jeff Stone and Brad Komminsk also have
agreed to be strikebreakers.
Q: Will the minor leaguers and replacements play together in
exhibition games?
A: If the Players' Association has its way, no. The union has asked
minor-leaguers to boycott games involving replacements. The clubs are
saying no one is a replacement player until the regular season starts.
Q: What happens to replacement players when the strike ends?
A: Most will be released. Some may be given a chance to stay, either
with the major-league club or in its minor league system. Those players
will almost certainly be ostracized by the returning players and the
minor leaguers who refused to play in replacement games.
Q: Are all 28 teams fielding replacement squads?
A: No. The Baltimore Orioles, owned by labor lawyer Peter Angelos,
say they will refuse to play replacement games. The Toronto Blue Jays
are keeping their minor leaguers and replacement players in different
camps and will not allow the manager or coaches to work with the
strikebreakers.
Q: How many major leaguers will cross the picket line and join
replacement players:
A: None have said they will.<
KEYWORDS: PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL STRIKE by CNB