Sport: Clutch Compromise in the Ninth

A last-minute deal averts a major league player strike

As the major league baseball contract talks moved into the bottom of the ninth last week, the deadlock took on a fantastical quality. Here were the owners demanding in effect an agreement that would protect them from themselves. Here were the players, who make an average of $130,000 a year, threatening to strike like a bunch of coolies. Fans everywhere could only hope that both sides would come to their senses before a summer's entertainment was dashed.

Shortly before 5 a.m. Friday, a bleary-eyed Marvin Miller, executive director of the Players Association, and Ray Grebey, the owners' negotiator, shook hands on what Miller called a "miracle" agreement that averted a walkout by the players. Left unresolved was the pivotal question of how a club should be compensated when one of its players turns free agent and is hired away by another team. But it appeared that the owners left the bargaining table with a narrow victory on this point, while losing gracefully on pensions and salaries. Admitted Phil Garner, second baseman and player representative for the Pittsburgh Pirates: "We had to give up a great deal to get a settlement. We don't know if it's going to be worth it in the long haul."

The current compensation procedure, under which a team losing a free agent is awarded an extra pick in the annual draft of amateur players, will remain in effect this year. The issue will be renegotiated next January, after a review by a committee of player and management representatives. If no agreement results, the owners can impose their own compensation formula. The players reserved the right to strike in response.