    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [February 7, 1995]
    [Pages 169-171]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters on the Major League Baseball
    Strike
    February 7, 1995

        The President. Good evening. Sorry to keep you here so long tonight.
    I had hoped that tonight I'd be coming out to tell you that baseball was
    coming back in 1995, and for a good while this evening, I thought that
    that might well be the case. Unfortunately, the parties have not reached
    agreement.
        The American people are the real losers, the major league cities,
    the spring training communities, the families of thousands of Americans
    who won't have work unless there's a baseball season, and of course, the
    millions of fans who have waited now for 6 long months for the owners
    and the players to give us back our national pastime.
        I have done all I could to change this situation. At my request,
    Bill Usery, the highly respected former Secretary of Labor, has been
    working very hard in mediating this dispute. He has certainly gone the
    extra mile, and we all owe him our thanks. But the players and owners
    still remain apart on their differences. Clearly they are not capable of
    settling this strike without an umpire. So I have now concluded, since I
    have no legal authority in this situation, as all of you know and have
    known for some time, that I should send to the Congress legislation
    seeking binding arbitration of the baseball dispute.
        This is not a request for a congressionally imposed solution. It is
    a request for the only process we have left to us to find a solution
    through neutral parties. And the only way to do this appears to be for
    Congress to step up to the plate and pass the legislation. Unless they
    do, we may not have baseball in 1995.
        I know that the people in Congress say they have other pressing
    business, and they certainly do have other pressing business. I regret
    very much having to send this legislation there, but spring training is
    just 9 days away, and I think many Americans consider this pressing. At
    least when the bill goes to the Congress, the American people can make
    themselves heard one way or the other on the legislation and Congress
    can consider it.
        Clearly, the best solution is still one that is voluntary. I still
    call again on both sides to work with Mr. Usery to narrow their
    differences. Hopefully, they can reach agreement. If not, then Mr.
    Usery's recommendations as to where the parties are at the time can be
    made available to the arbitrators.
        I urge the parties to embrace this course themselves. And as I said,
    I had hoped for a while tonight that they would. We have done the best
    we can. The American people have been frustrated by the strike. I think
    all the parties who were here tonight have now been frustrated by the
    strike.
        There is something the American people can do. They can tell their
    Senator or Representative whether they feel this is a proper case for
    binding arbitration. Last fall, for the first time in 90 years, there
    was no World Series. If something goes on for that long without
    interruption, seeing our Nation through wars and dramatic social
    changes, it becomes more than a game, more than simply a way to pass
    time. It becomes part of who we are. And we've all got to work to
    preserve that part.
        So again I say, I call on the players and the owners to go back, to
    keep talking, to work through this. There is still time. I will send the
    legislation to Congress with the full expectation that Congress will
    consider it in light of what they believe their constituents want, which
    their constituents will have the opportunity to tell them.
        Q. Mr. President, you've met now with the players and the owners. In
    your opinion, who is more to blame for this impasse? And why don't they
    simply accept voluntarily binding arbitration?
        The President. Well, I think both sides have their share of blame,
    and I think it would be wrong for me to characterize it at this time. I
    don't think that would help to settle the suit. You should ask them why
    they won't accept what they won't accept. They will both have different
    explanations for that, and I will leave it for them to put it out there.
    I did urge that course strongly.
        Q. Mr. President, what gave rise to the optimism you felt during the
    course of the evening that a settlement might be possible?

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        The President. Well, I don't want to do anything to weaken either
    side's position or characterize it in a way they might later think is
    unfair. Let me just say, I thought that we were about to get agreement
    on a process which would permit the next season to be played, that would
    permit spring training to occur, and that would lead to the resolution
    of these issues. I thought that we had worked our way through--there
    were some new ideas presented tonight as we discussed, as we talked.
        That's why, you know, when they didn't reach agreement, when they
    came over here at 4:30 p.m., I thought I was going to come out and make
    the statement I just made to you. But then I said we ought to try one
    more time. And the Vice President sat with Mr. Usery and both sides, and
    then about 7 p.m. I began to meet with them. Now, we've worked hard for
    more than 3 hours now, and we could not agree on a process that both
    sides thought was fair to their interest which would immediately permit
    me to announce that baseball would be played this season. But we did
    have some new ideas offered that had not been on the table before that I
    thought would lead to that. Unfortunately, it did not, at least it has
    not tonight.
        Q. Mr. President, when will you send up your legislation? And are
    you asking Congress to make this their top priority, putting aside their
    other business until they complete action on this?
        The President. I'm going to send it up tomorrow, and I would like to
    have it considered expeditiously, yes. I haven't looked at the
    congressional calendar; I don't even know what their options are for
    that. But I think it should be considered expeditiously. I think,
    obviously it can't be done in a day or two, anyway, so the Congress will
    have time to hear from the American people, pro and con. This is an
    unusual request; I realize that. There is no baseball commissioner. We
    lost the World Series. Millions upon millions of dollars in lost income
    is at stake, and a lot more as well. So I hope they will consider it
    expeditiously. I think that's the only way it could lead to a season in
    '95.
        Q. How do you compare this, Mr. President, to, say, President
    Kennedy acting on steel prices and former uses of the office and the
    Oval Office for labor dispute?
        The President. Well, I think it's a little different in the sense
    that the steel price issue could have sent inflation through the economy
    and shut the economy down. I've tried to explain that if it weren't for
    the unusual nature of this case, I would not be intervening in the
    baseball case because the economy of the country won't go down as a
    result of it. The inflation rate of the country won't go up as a result
    of something that could or couldn't happen.
        This is far more in the nature of a unique set of circumstances
    where there isn't a commissioner and there should have been to resolve
    this, and where there is immediate substantial threat to a large number
    of communities affected by spring training and the communities that have
    baseball teams, and where I think the country would be well served by
    resolving this. So it is different in that sense.
        I was looking at the history of Presidential action in these areas,
    going back to the first one, which I believe was under President
    Theodore Roosevelt, which unfortunately was also unsuccessful. Just 3
    years before he settled the Russo-Japanese War and won the Nobel Peace
    Prize, he found difficulty in settling a labor dispute here in the
    United States.
        I still think this can be settled. The parties are just going to
    have to decide whether they want to have a baseball season in '95 and
    what the long-term damage to baseball will be and therefore the
    economics of both sides if it doesn't happen.
        Q. Mr. President, if the season begins with replacement players,
    would you throw out the first ball?
        The President. I am encouraging these parties to go back and work
    out their differences. Until I am convinced that they have exhausted all
    opportunities to do that, the less I say about all other issues, the
    better we're going to be. I do not want to be yet another force
    undermining the possibility of an agreement. I want to be a force to
    create an increased likelihood of an agreement, and that's what I've
    done so far. I'm sorry I don't have a success to report tonight. I'm not
    sorry I tried, and we'll keep working at it.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:51 p.m. in the Briefing Room at the
    White House.

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