They considered a walkout until they realized they would only be hurting themselves.
So the young players on the White Sox will play, and play to win, confident their team can contend and just as confident they`re being underpaid.
At issue is money, of course, but it`s more than that. According to Greg Hibbard and Jack McDowell, what put as many as nine players on the verge of leaving the club over the weekend (a talk with Charlie Hough helped cool passions) were comments made last week by Sox Board Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf regarding the signing of Bo Jackson.
Jackson, Reinsdorf noted with considerable satisfaction during the press conference a week ago in Sarasota, had agreed to a play-for-performanc e contract.
Reinsdorf`s kicker: ”Bo knows what`s good.”
”I wasn`t mad about what Bo Jackson did, or what he got,” Hibbard said Tuesday. ”He`s got the time and the power to do that.
”Our beef was we were asking for an extra $10,000 to $15,000 on our contract just so we`re paid comparable to the league. We`re $50,000 below the market right now-at least.”
That was the situation before the Jackson signing, and the players pretty much kept quiet about it.
”I`ve never said, `I`m underpaid and I`m miffed,` ” said McDowell.
”That`s not the point. I`m talking principle here.
”It`s something that we had completely accepted. We didn`t say `boo`
about it the whole spring. We let everybody else around the league walk out, stir up a bunch of stuff.
”And then that comes.”
Reinsdorf, reached Tuesday in Chicago, issued an apology to the players.
”I was really trying more to jab the union than the players,” Reinsdorf said. ”Their union has created a system that penalizes young players and rewards mediocrity.”
The root of the problem with Sox salaries, as it has been for several years, is the club`s pay-for-performance plan. Briefly, a player who accepts the program gets a larger base salary, plus incentives, in exchange for delaying arbitration for a year.
If a player rejects the plan, the club pays him whatever it wants to until he becomes eligible for arbitration after three years of service. Those players have paid a price.
For example, there`s Hibbard. He was 14-9 in 1990, his first full year in the big leagues, and had his contract renewed at $150,000, among the lower salaries in his bracket. Pitchers directly above him are Boston`s Dana Kiecker (8-9 last season) and two from Minnesota, David West (7-9) and Mark Guthrie
(7-9).
If Hibbard had accepted the pay-for-performance plan, his base would have been $310,000, which could have reached $450,000 with incentives. The Sox position: The player gets big money earlier, which he can use, invest, whatever; and there are no guarantees of a big arbitration award when the time comes-the ”bird in the hand” angle.
In any case, the players had pretty much learned to live with the program, each in his own way. Reinsdorf`s comment, as he announced a $700,000 guarantee for a player who might never play, merely reminded them that for those whose contracts had been renewed unilaterally, things were out of sync with the rest of the league.
Hibbard and McDowell, who have emerged as spokesmen, insist this near-incident will have no effect on their play.
”I told Jerry that,” Hibbard said. ”I told him, `I`m upset the way you`re treating me, but if you pay me $100,000 or $300,000, I`m going to go out there and try to win.` ”
”I agree with incentive systems,” McDowell said. ”I think everything should be evaluated year-to-year.
”We didn`t say anything all spring. I don`t need a jab that I`m doing something wrong. There`s got to be some give and take on the loyalty part of it all.”
