European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 25, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 34 the stars and stripes sports thursday August 25,1994don t hold your breath baseball fans by Bob Kravitz Scripps Howard news service now we re supposed to get excited about getting our baseball summer Back. Now we re supposed to look at Jerry Mcmorris and his Brethren and View them As the White knights of sanity and reason. Now we re supposed to believe All this Saber rattling was just a ritual of War and All will be pleasantly settled once the two sides share Coffee and doughnuts this week in new York. Rubbish. The problem is this new people. Same tired old ideas. There a Only one Way we play baseball again this season and that a if the owners listen to Mcmorris and get off the salary Cap. The owners can dress the Cap in to commentary hat and tails can Couch it in the dubious terms of a Cost certainty a and it wont make a bit of. Difference. The players see what it has done to the National football league. The players notice How National basketball association players have sued to do away with the Cap. The players understand it is nothing More than a Way to artificially lower salaries and thus make it More palatable for the big dogs to help out the Montreal and Pitts Burns of the world. Donald Fehr is not stupid nor Are his better informed constituents a much to the Surprise and Chagrin of Richard Ravitch. The salary Cap is not negotiable. The sooner the owners understand that the better the Chance Well be Able to save what Little is left of this baseball season. But some of us Arentt holding our breath. For this reason the feeling Here is the people who drive this machine notably Bua Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf and the Small Market folks a wanted this strike planned this strike and executed this strike. This was the game plan from the moment they ousted Fay Vincent a Man who had gotten in the owners Way the last time they tried to Strong Arm the players. They have gone to All the trouble of pulling a Palace coup on Vincent and inserting their Henchman Ravitch if the idea was to Trade a year of free Agency for the elimination of arbitration. Certainly they would not have committed the Public relations Blunder of withholding pension payments if they truly intended to bargain in Good Faith. This is what they wanted this is what they got. Congratulations. Too bad there wont be a sports crimes tribunal after its Over. A the owners decided a Long time ago they Are on a Dock a Fehr said earlier this week. A and when the clock gets to the Day they want to Settle a whether its this week this month next month next year or 1996 a then talk seriously. Up until then we can to expect them to. Unfortunately All we can do is the idea has been floated since the beginning of this travesty that the owners real Fallback position is elimination or alterations of arbitration. And the salary Cap just a Hammer. Just a bargaining Chip. Trade a year of free agent eligibility for a change in the arbitration rules and voila a we have baseball again. But if there were a Fallback position if changing arbitration had been the True Issue they have proposed it by now Haven to they lost enough millions. The real ownership position is this Swallow the salary Cap or drop dead. And those owners who done to agree with this position this gag orders for you. The people who want to kill the summer of 1994 done to want to hear from the owners who make a profit from this system in a strange change from the Norm of human history its the have not relatively speaking who Are dictating the terms of War to the haves. Sure the owners want this strike to end but Only if they can have 1966 Back again. The owners want the game to continue but Only if the clock can be turned Back a couple of decades before Curt tvs flood before Andy Messersmith and Dave Mcnally before superstitions and arbitration and Resolute players unions. The salary Cap will not happen. The players will riot buckle. The Union will not be broken. The owners have tried this before and failed miserably but this is not a group that learns much from the lessons of their own sad history. New faces might provide Hope and renewed dialogue always is better than no dialogue a or what has passed for dialogue recently Ravitch and Fehr swapping haymakers on every to show this Side of Montel Williams. But the of writers who have held the game hostage this summer must give reality a Chance. There will be no salary Cap. After that maybe there can be room for Compromise. T Bod Kraytz is a columnist for Tho Rocky Mountain news in Dan Var courier returns prepares for . Open by Robin finn the new York times new York a Jim courier Hasni to won a Tennis tournament in More than a year has dropped from no. 1 to a Distant 11th, and just last week threatened to skip next week s . Open a declaration of dissatisfaction with his game that spurred talk he was quitting Tennis. Cancel that threat. Instead of quitting courier slipped quietly into new York courier City under the cover of night monday and by tuesday morning was cracking out forehand on the opens practice courts As if he had never left the game. Not even for a week. A a rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated a said courier who was t sure if he was quoting Ernest Hemingway or Mark Twain but was certain that he has suddenly rejuvenated himself for the years last grand slam courier who raised eyebrows in the Tennis world last november at the at championships by pulling a paperback novel out of his gear bag and Reading his Way through the change overs shocked it last week from Indianapolis on the eve of his 24th birthday. Frustrated by his second round loss to Spain Salex Corretta the same 20-year-old who had upended him in the second round at Barcelona this Spring courier attended a Post match press conference against his will and then in the heat of the moment vented his dismay. A the racquets Are in the bag right now a he said a and they re going to stay there until my heart tells me to pick them up again and i done to know if that a going to be one Day one week one month one year 10 courier whose Rise to no. 1 had always been traced More to sheer Force of worx and will than sheer Talent also said he did no to see the sense in playing if he had no emotional Energy to compete. <4. a momentary lapse of sanity or insanity a courier said tuesday Between a double practice session at the National Tennis Center. A but the real reason it happened Wasny to the unforced errors i made in that match it was that in the third set i realized i did no to want to win the match nothing was pushing me it was a very empty a what kind of an athlete does no to want to win a said courier. A usually if it happens i fight this time when it happened courier resigned himself to losing and then went Home to Florida to Analyse what a gone so wrong. Exactly a year ago the Sandy haired Workaholic was heading into the . Open with the rank-., my and a 51-9 match record. Head successfully defended his australian open title and been runner up at the French and Wimbledon. This year he has no tournament titles and with the exception of his semifinal finishes at the australian and French opens and his 4-0 Davis cup record no highlights. A this is like life you can to run downhill All the time a he said. Although he stayed away from the circuit almost a week courier said it Only took a couple of Days for him to realize he Wasny to ready to quit and that he Wasny to tired enough to miss the . Open. A a in be been working hard and gotten frustrated because in a not seeing the hard work paying off a said courier who is 41-15 going into the open a but that a not a reason for quitting. I done to want to quit and then Nave to look at myself in the Mirror and know i still have the ability but i just gave up. That would be the worst crime of courier said he Isnit pining away Over the top ranking. A i know its something you re just renting a he said. A you done town and he admitted that while he was fatigued in All respects at Indianapolis a problem he intends to treat by trimming his tournament schedule next year he is not burned out
