NEW YORK -- Baseball's labor counsel has agreed to allow the
players' union to analyze the clubs' financial data for
congressional review, a leading Capitol Hill critic of the sport
said Wednesday.
Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., said Robert Manfred Jr., the
labor lawyer, agreed to waive a confidentiality agreement and allow
the analysis by the Major League Baseball Players' Association.
Manfred's action must be approved by the owners.
"We still need to work out a final agreement, but I am very
hopeful this will represent a step forward in our federal
understanding of baseball's plight," Conyers said at a news
conference.
The players' union, which is in negotiations with the owners on
a new contract, has looked at baseball's books before, but this
would be the first time it has been able to pass along its analysis
of the figures to a third party.
Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee,
had expressed some skepticism with baseball commissioner Bud
Selig's testimony before the panel last month. Selig told the
committee that the sport lost more than $500 million last season.
Later, Conyers called for the commissioner's resignation after
disclosures of a loan some years ago from a company owned by the
family of Carl Pohlad, owner of the Minnesota Twins, to the
Milwaukee Brewers when the team was owned by Selig.
He later said he would withdraw his call for Selig to resign if
Selig dropped plans for baseball to pare two teams this season.
While the teams have not been officially identified, they are
believed to be the Twins and Montreal Expos.
"I've got a lot of things to do besides cross swords with the
commissioner of baseball," the congressman said.
He remained troubled, however, by the hearing and Selig's
testimony.
"What I was disturbed with most is how little I learned," he
said. "Some witnesses are masters of obfuscation. Selig is better
than that.
"I don't want to call my friend, the commissioner, a liar. But
I would like to see the data."
In his testimony, Selig painted a bleak picture of baseball's
financial condition, defending the plan to eliminate two
franchises. Conyers was still wondering about that when he met with
Manfred on Tuesday.
"What is the financial condition?" Conyers asked. "The
commissioner says they are hemorrhaging red ink. One team (the
Boston Red Sox) was sold for $700 million after the hearing.
"These are not poor or inexperienced business people. They know
what they're doing in terms of making money. Why would rich guys
fool around losing money? We're talking about a billionaire's club.
Maybe they don't mind. I don't know. But I know people are
skeptical."
Conyers said Congress did not want to examine baseball's books
itself but "what we want to know is where they're at. I'm sure the
players will help our situation.
"We are going to have an exchange of financial data that will
satisfy us that the representations before the committee are
accurate."
The congressman was upbeat after the meeting with Manfred and
said the attorney would take the agreement to Selig at the owners'
meeting in Phoenix this week.
The owners' agenda includes consideration of the sale of the Red
Sox, which then would set in motion sales of the Florida Marlins
and the Expos.
Conyers was most disturbed by the plan to eliminate two teams.
"I want baseball to survive and thrive," he said. "But I'm
not sure that arbitrarily shutting down teams and cutting off
people from the game is the way to do it."
Conyers has introduced a bill that would partially repeal
baseball's antitrust exemption, and he said the Judiciary Committee
would reconvene and possibly call Selig to testify again.
Conyers' bill would apply only to contraction and would leave
the remaining parts of the antitrust exemption in place, as they
have been since Congress granted the exemption in 1922.
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