St. Louis Sports Online

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Mike Huss "The Fuss According to Huss" St. Louis Sports Online lead columnist and host of "Sportstalk" on WGNU AM-920 (8:00-9:00 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays) E-mail Mike at: hussonwgnu@aol.com

Less than twenty four hours after Major League Baseball held its annual All Star Game/Lovefest in Boston, the League's Umpire Association mouthpiece Richie Phillips announced for all to hear that on September 2, at least fifty-seven of his members will submit their resignations. A sizable severance package could be paid out to the Umpires.

One good thing, though, there is no truth to the rumor that the Major League Baseball Umpire Association will block Highway 40 in protest.

Phillips also announced that one day later (September 3), these soon to be unemployed arbitrators will establish a hiring hall type corporation for their services. In their mind, this will serve as the Umpire Clearing House for Major League Baseball. A haven to hire ball or strike, safe or out, fair or foul officials for your personal and professional use.

(Isn't it ironic: I thought most unions opposed to such outsourcing?? Oh, yeah, this is not a union-rather it is an association.)

Commissioner in Name, Bud Selig, and his fraternity brother owners are not jumping at the existing Men in Blue's new proposal. Rather, to some of the owners, $400,000 per member to eliminate the current umpire situation is considered money well spent. In their eyes, this payment equates to a four year deal to a back up infielder.

Hence, once we have trouble in paradise. The National Past Time is experiencing labor problems. Another power struggle is brewing. Storm clouds on the horizon. This time, the dispute is with their enforcers of the game, the Umpires.

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The Men in Blue feel under appreciated and under paid. The Association would like more input on the rules, the strike zone, protocol, etc. (It will be interesting, though, to count the number of ejections for the period of July 15 through September 2.)

Yet the Association's timing and strategy are puzzling. Why did they make this announcement a day after the All Star Game; as baseball fans throughout the fruited plain enjoyed a warm fuzzy feeling about their favorite millionaires?? Why did the Umpires impose their deadline in July: allowing the Owners to develop a counter strategy?

Reportedly, Selig and his colleagues are preparing replacements officials for the games in the September stretch run. The Owners are hoping to use the same strategy employed by the White House during the Impeachment proceedings: listen to the polls. If you believe the sounds from Squawk Radio, the fans would not only like to see the current umpires, but they would help them clean out the Men in Blue's lockers.

It would be interesting to see how these polls would read should a replacement umpire make an incorrect call at a critical time during a stretch run game in either New York or Boston, against the Home Team.

Yet, while most of the baseball world is watching this showdown unfold, no one is watching the outcome closer than the REAL Commissioner of Baseball, Donald Fehr and his Players Association.

This dispute with the Men in Blue may be a foreshadowing for the owners. The Players Association will watch how the debate will be addressed. They will listen to the Owners' language. They will observe Owners' the posturing. They will absorb and record the Owners' sound bites and photo opportunities.

Fehr and his Association watched how the National Basketball Association Owners handled their dealings with the NBA Players Association. The Real Commissioner is very aware that a couple of NBA Owners also have Major League Baseball Franchises in their portfolios.

A labor victory over the Umpires, after their success in the NBA lockout could give the Baseball Owners confidence in their upcoming negotiations with the Players Association in 2001. Fehr and his gang will undoubtedly fire a counter attack. The clock is now ticking for a showdown.

We do know that neither the owners or the players have learned anything from the 1994 shutdown of the game. It can be argued that the animosity between the two parties have gotten much worse.

Unfortunately, both parties have forgotten that baseball fans found other things to do when the game was shut down, and did not return in droves when the strike ended.

So barring a settlement, we will enjoy baseball as we know it for the next six weeks or so. After that, the outside of stadiums could resemble the UPS strike with picket lines . The inside of the stadiums could resemble South American soccer games, as the paying fans watch replacement umpires officiate hotly contested stretch run September games.

Meanwhile, the players may just sit back and take advantage of the situation.

Play Ball!!. Yet, this episode may ultimately bring an entirely new meaning to the final lyrics of Baseball's unofficial National Anthem:

"For its One (the 1994 Lockout)

Two (the 1999 Umpires Dispute)

Three Strikes (a Possible Year 2001 Shutout)

And You're Out. At the Old Ball Game."