At which point the president kind of disappeared," Selig says. In comes all the same cast of characters. President, you know, I gave my word, as you did, that whatever Bill Usery came up with, we’d accept.' And then, all of a sudden, the door opened. (Courtesy Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club) Former Commissioner Bud Selig in his Milwaukee office. "And I could see he was really upset."Īs they talked, Selig was summoned to the Oval Office to meet privately with Bill Clinton. Kennedy didn’t, and even Richard Nixon didn't do this to me,' " Selig says. Dwight David Eisenhower never did this to me. Later, Selig ran into Usery in a hallway. After a desperate, last-minute attempt to hammer out an agreement, the meeting ended abruptly. Clinton quickly looked away and then ducked out of the Roosevelt Room.
He had expected the president to hold the union to its word that it would accept Usery’s recommendations. Union won't accept it.' And I'm stunned." And Al Gore says 'This deal will not work. And everybody's there - Robert Reich, the labor secretary, George Stephanopoulos and Vice President Gore. "And I can see, by the look on Bill Usery’s face, there's trouble. "And there is Don Fehr with a bunch of players," Selig says. Selig walked into the Roosevelt Room for a private meeting.
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Selig figured the union had also agreed on Usery’s terms, and that there’d be a new labor deal just in time for a full 1995 MLB season. "Finally, at 5:00 o'clock, we get a call to meet at the White House." Joe Lieberman, Chris Dodd, Herb Kohl, but nobody knew anything," Selig says. We started calling everybody that we knew: Sens. Selig went back to his hotel to brief the owners. "And he said he was going to see the union. 14 to the President that I'd accept what you came up with, so I don't have a choice,' " Selig says. 7, 1995 that there was still no settlement in the baseball strike. But … Bill Clinton leaves the podium after announcing on Feb. Selig knew the owners wouldn’t be happy about Usery’s recommendation of a 50% luxury tax on payrolls above $40 million per season. "But there were a lot of parts of it I didn't like." "And he gave me his plan and, you know, to be very candid with you, I liked it," Selig says. 7, after the deadline for a new agreement had expired, and as the time for spring training approached, Selig went back to Washington to meet with Bill Usery. "We didn't agree on a lot of things," Selig says.
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The sides quibbled over the salary cap, free agency, how much payroll tax teams should pay and how to distribute that revenue to the league’s smaller clubs. Bill Usery and I hollered at each other a lot - as much as I liked him, by the way," Selig says. "They were tough - very, very tough - meetings. Then the White House set a deadline of February 6 for a settlement. But Usery still couldn’t bring the sides close to an agreement. The sides negotiated into January of 1995, but made little progress.
"And this is the crucial thing: that whatever Usery came up with, we would accept," Selig says. But Clinton had a stipulation for both parties. president from Harry Truman to Gerald Ford. The 70-year-old Usery was also trusted by Clinton, and by Major League Baseball Players Association head Donald Fehr. Everyone agreed that Usery was the man for the job. Usery was a former secretary of labor who’d been appointed to arbitrate labor disputes by every U.S. So I'm going to appoint a mediator, if you agree, by the name of Bill Usery,' " Selig says. And I'd really like to help in solving it. "President Clinton said to me, 'You know, this is unfortunate, and we find ourselves in a tough position. Selig hopped on a plane in Milwaukee and arrived in D.C. presidents getting involved in sports - Teddy Roosevelt called for rule changes to make football safer FDR told Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis that MLB should carry on during World War II. "I got a call from the White House to meet with President Clinton." "It was just horrendous. That was a really, really dismal time in baseball.
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In the fall of 1994, angst filled the void created by the loss of baseball.įans of the game were still struggling with the idea that that there’d be no World Series for the first time in 90 years.
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