Well, it looks like Selig is going to fine George but at least he's going to fine the other guys who spoke out too... Bud is more stupid than I thought -- does he really think that fining George -- even if it is $1 million is worth him not giving the shot in the arm to the union that he won't sit still for them asking him to shell out $100 million in luxury taxes and shared revenue?
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...6p-12490c.html
Selig to fine Boss
By MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
George Steinbrenner is about to find out that talk isn't cheap.
Commissioner Bud Selig has told the Boss, Padres owner John Moores and Rangers owner Tom Hicks they'll be fined for violating his gag order and talking to the media about baseball's ongoing labor negotiations.
Selig hasn't determined how much the owners' loose lips will cost them, a Major League Baseball source told the Daily News. But the fines are expected to be much steeper than the one levied against Reds general manager Jim Bowden, who said on Aug.1 if the players do strike, "make sure it's Sept.11. Be symbolic. Let Donald Fehr drive the plane right into the building."
It was widely reported that Bowden was fined $50,000, but a baseball source says the fine was considerably less than $5,000. Selig considered Bowden's comment insensitive, but it didn't undermine the owners' position at the bargaining table like the comments by Steinbrenner, Moores and Hicks.
In January 2001, Selig threatened to slap the owners with a $1 million fine if they talked to the media about the labor negotiations without his approval. Selig wants to present a united front in the negotiations and avoid the rancor that marred the 1994 labor talks.
Hicks, for example, told the Dallas Morning News earlier this month that he wants a salary cap. "Every team in baseball that has any kind of business sense would try to manage its payroll to stay under that tax threshold. If this system is implemented, the Texas Rangers will be under the threshold."
Union chief Don Fehr used that quote in a memo to agents and players to argue that the owners' proposal for a luxury tax to slow payroll growth is really an effort to institute a salary cap - something the union has long opposed and the issue that led to the 1994 work stoppage.
Moores, meanwhile, said that if the players went on strike Friday, he would be prepared to shut down for an entire season, and he thought eight to 10 other teams would be willing to do the same. Selig fears that kind of talk strengthens the position of union hardliners, sources close to the commissioner say.
Earlier this month, Steinbrenner told The New York Times that the owners' revenue-sharing and luxury-tax proposals favor small-market clubs at the expense of the Yankees and other big-market teams.
"I see it hurting the union and the players, and I see it hurting us and other big-market clubs," Steinbrenner said. "You know, you don't buy a big-market team thinking it's a small market. That's elementary."
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