Columnist Dean Juipe: Baseball has seen its last strike

Dean Juipe

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

The warning signs were up in April when the baseball season got under way. And the forecast was ominous.

Never in the history of the labor negotiations between Major League Baseball and the players' association has a contract expired and there not been a work stoppage. And the current contract between the owners and players expires in October.

For every article heralding the opening of the season, there was one about the inevitability of a strike. The predictions were dour.

Players' strikes interrupted the 1981 and 1985 seasons and led to the unprecedented cancellation of the World Series in 1994. Writers and fans were led to believe another confrontation was coming this year, one that might impact the World Series, or, perhaps, the 2002 season.

Yet as the season spins into its second half, labor stories are nowhere to be found. And it's not because a new contract has been signed or its issues resolved.

It's because this season is going so fabulously well for both owners and players that it defies logic to think a strike or work stoppage will actually transpire.

A players' strike in 2001? No way.

An owners' lockout? Absolutely not.

Baseball is too healthy for any type of labor strife, and, while the ongoing negotiations are held out of the spotlight and without comment from either side, it's inconceivable that a new basic agreement between the parties won't get signed this year.

For this, the sport can thank its ravenous fans and the expansion of interest in baseball worldwide. The game is in great shape.

Sure, there are teams with financial problems and there's even talk of consolidating and disbanding a couple of them, such as Tampa Bay and Montreal. Yet that's relatively insignificant overall.

As was evident from this week's All-Star game and festivities, baseball is enjoying a terrific run that has been fueled in part by an influx of excellent players from Asia and Latin America. These newcomers may have tongue-twisting names but they're extremely talented and, importantly, already well-liked by teammates and fans.

They're also revered in their homelands, and that compounds Major League Baseball's stature and its ability to take financial advantage of the situation. MLB has never seen these types of worldwide merchandising opportunities, and, rest assured, it has and will capitalize.

This broadening of its appeal will also lead to a truly global All-Star game, and, in all likelihood, a truly global World Series within the not too distant future.

An All-Star game pitting an American-born team against an international team is already being discussed, and the day is apt to come when the MLB World Series winner will play an extra week and take on its Japanese counterpart.

These are all positive changes for a sport that once appeared to be self-destructive and bent on inflicting itself with the kind of repetitive labor problems that alienate even the staunchest fans.

But in light of the wonderfully harmonious season baseball is experiencing, the owners and players have to see the obvious: They're not only sitting pretty, they're on the verge of even greater financial rewards.