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08/30/2002 3:03 pm ET
Labor settlement is a Giant relief
SF happy to be back on field, in chase
By Chris Shuttlesworth / MLB.com
PHOENIX -- The Giants traveled from Colorado to Arizona after winning their fifth game in a row and ninth in the past 11 games not knowing if they would be playing a crucial three-game clash with the Division front-running Diamondbacks.
After a final-hours settlement to the labor negotiations between the Players Association and baseball management, the Giants will indeed get to resume their quest to overtake the Wild Card-leading Dodgers and make a charge against the D-Backs, who hold a nine-game lead over San Francisco.
"It's a great day for baseball fans in this country," said Peter Magowan, the Giants' president and managing general partner. "We've achieved an agreement without a work stoppage for the first time in 30 years."
While the Giants will very likely have to contribute more money toward revenue sharing as a result of the agreement, executive vice president and chief operating officer Larry Baer said the club was very pleased with the deal.
"While we may end up paying out more in revenue sharing, overall the industry will be a lot healthier with the deal," he said. "And it's no secret that a long strike anything like the one we had in '94, the Giants could have been perhaps even the biggest loser in a strike like that, not just because of the debt on the ballpark ... but just given our season ticket base and given our attendance and given the way things are going for the franchise right now."
He added that ticket prices would not be increased to compensate for any added costs related to revenue sharing; increases for next year, which will likely be comparable to those made prior to the 2002 season, are considered independently of revenue-sharing debts.
Baer also said team payroll would not be affected by the change in the economic structure.
The players had threatened not to play games starting with Friday's Cardinals-Cubs contest, scheduled for 12:20 p.m. PT, if an agreement had not been reached. Negotiators worked throughout most of the night and resumed in the morning, finally announcing an agreement about two hours before that scheduled first pitch.
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