[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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