Old-Timers With Old Values Speak Out : Former Dodger Wes Parker Says He Wouldn’t Vote for a Strike Today

The players say pay.

The owners say play.

The fans say enough already.

But as the deadline for a baseball strike grows ever nearer, there are other voices speaking, other opinions to be heard. They belong to those who once played the game, both on the field and in the union meetings--the former major leaguers now on the sidelines watching this drama unfold.

Wes Parker was a perennial Gold Glove first baseman for the Dodgers. Now 45, he is a part-time actor, baseball announcer and popular public speaker in the Los Angeles area.

When the major league players clashed with management 13 years ago, they gathered, 48 strong, on the eve of the season, to vote on a strike. They approved it, 47-1. The dissenter was Parker.

When he returned home, he became perhaps the first player representative impeached by his team. He had the courage of his convictions then, however, and still has them today.

“If I was playing today, I would not vote for a strike,” he said. “I think if the players today had a secret ballot, no pressure on them, a great many, perhaps a majority, would vote against a strike.

“I felt it was kind of a miracle, my getting into the big leagues in the first place. I was so grateful, I would never strike against the game and the team--the Dodgers--that I loved so much. But everybody has to make their own decision based on their own background. I just thought it was foolish to strike against the team and the game that had done so much for me.”

Parker also disagrees with the focus of the current issues.

“The pension plan they are talking about is not worth striking over,” he said. “Most of them are 20 years away from getting their pension. If they were to invest just one year of their current salary wisely, they’d get as much as they will get out of any pension settlement they reach.

“Now if they wanted to take care of some of the older players--not like me, I’m not talking about that at all--but players who played in the ‘40s and ‘50s, that would be different. Those players don’t have a lot of money.”

Can the game stand another strike? Will the fans come back this time?

“They’ll get over it,” Parker said. “In ’81 (the last baseball strike), everybody was saying they would never go back. They did. They’ll come back this time too. Time really does heal all.”

And Parker has no doubt there will be wounds to heal.

“I’m 100% sure there will be a strike,” he said. “I think the players will follow their leaders.”

Don Larsen, about to turn 56, is a former Yankee who in 1956 pitched a perfect game in the World Series, the only man to ever have done so. He lives in Morgan Hill, Calif., where he is a salesman for a paper company.

“I’m not a fan, so I’m not going to worry about a strike,” he said. “My sympathies don’t lie with anybody.

“I don’t mind the players getting what they can get, but it’s getting a little ridiculous. They are becoming a little bit of a hog.

“We’re the ones who should be getting more, in pension and insurance benefits. They don’t give much today to the guys who started the whole thing, do they?”

Larsen has a solution to a strike.

“It’s too bad they don’t bring up the minor league players and give them a little exposure,” he said. “They might be more interesting. The guys today--I know we had our fun, but we didn’t raise hell the way they do. I don’t go to games to see these guys. Oh, I might go out to see a Pete Rose and a few others who hold the game in high esteem.”

Although he doesn’t go to games, Larsen does feel for those who do attend regularly.

“The fans make arrangements to see games, and sometimes they work their vacations around it,” he said. “They are entitled to see a full schedule. You’ve got to give something back to the fans, the people who pay the salaries.

“I would think they would finish the season and negotiate afterward. Maybe that’s not reasonable. Who knows?”

Lou Johnson was an outfielder who spent three seasons with the Dodgers in the mid ‘60s and wound up on two pennant winners and a World Series winner. At 50, he is a member of the team’s speakers’ bureau.

“I came from a day where if you didn’t do well, you didn’t play,” he said. “We didn’t have all these goodies they have now. I’m for the athletes. I think they should get as much as they can. People forget how short their careers are. But what some are getting is ridiculous.

“It (the strike) reminds me of the American Revolution. They were willing to give up their lives for what they believed in. It’s kind of like that now. These guys are giving up part of their livelihoods.

“It’s hard for some guys to give up their check. They need it to keep their heads above water. There could be a lot of Mercedes for sale. You might be able to get a lot of them cheap in a few weeks. A lot of these guys are making big money.

“Plus, you’ve got to remember, some might be jeopardizing their careers. Let’s say they have to go out and get a job during the strike, like a construction job. What if they get hurt?”

Johnson is close to today’s players, and he doesn’t see the same mentality he saw when the pickets came out four years ago.

“The last time, they were hostile,” he said. “They were driveling at the mouth, eating barbed wire. It’s not that way this time.

“I hope there’ll be a compromise. I hope they wind up giving everybody something to smile about.”

If not, will the fans ever smile again?

“They’ll be mad for maybe two weeks,” he said. “But they’ll be back. This game is strong.”

Roy Campanella, 63, is a Hall of Famer. In his career as a Dodger catcher, he won three National League most valuable player awards. He is a member of the team’s Community Services Department.

“We took part of our salary to keep the union going when it started back in the late ‘40s,” said Campanella, confined to a wheelchair since he was paralyzed in an auto accident 27 years ago. “Now (the current players) don’t want to increase our pensions. I don’t like it one bit. I don’t think it’s fair.

“The old-timers who started it should share in it. They took money from our checks on the 1st and 15th of every month to keep the union going. Now, they do not want us to get in on it.

“Something has gone wrong, but what can these owners do? It’s big business. I would like to see the game continue to be played. But you can’t play without players.”

Orlando Cepeda, long-time San Francisco Giant, a 17-year majorleague veteran and a former National League MVP, now lives in Burbank. At 47, he hopes to hold the first of a series of baseball camps in a few weeks.

“I’ve been through it (a strike) a couple of times, so I know it’s a hard situation,” he said. “The players have to just sit and wait and see what happens.

“I know the fans suffer, and that’s not too good for baseball. Every time there’s a strike, the fans lose interest. What if they don’t come back? If the fans suffer, the players will suffer.”

Like Parker, Cepeda is not convinced the players are speaking with one voice.

“A lot of players are not making too much money,” he said. “A lot of them don’t want to strike. Someone like (Pedro) Guerrero, I don’t think he wants to miss games, lose his timing with the year he’s having. It’s hard on everyone, but it’s hardest on the ones who live the game. It’s a very sad situation.”

Even for Cepeda.

“As a fan, I hate to see it,” he said. “I love to watch the games.”

Virgil (Fire) Trucks was an American League pitcher for 17 years for the Detroit Tigers and several other clubs. In 1952, he pitched two no-hitters for the Tigers. Now 65, he spoke out at a celebrity golf tournament in Tennessee.

“I think if I was an owner and they struck, they would sit there until they starved to death,” Trucks told a news service. “I’d make them realize they were striking for petty stuff.

“They’re already getting the money. I don’t see how the owners can give them any more than they’re giving them. And I think they’re crazy to strike.”

Like some other veterans asked about the strike, Trucks wants to know what’s in it for him.

“The younger players, they don’t want to give us nothing,” he said. “They don’t even want to see you. They’re not a friendly group of ballplayers. They’re all for themselves and nobody else. They don’t care about anybody else.”

Don Drysdale, Hall of Fame pitcher with the Dodgers, is now, at 49, a baseball broadcaster with the White Sox and ABC.

“I am wishfully optimistic,” he said. “I feel that the two sides can get together.”

But that’s not to say he doesn’t see problems.

“The owners can’t seem to get it through their heads that the players are not going to police themselves,” Drysdale said. “They are not going to do it. They are not going to give back things they already have.”

Today’s players can thank Drysdale, and Sandy Koufax, his former teammate, for helping to give them what they have today. Drysdale and Koufax were two of the trailblazers on baseball’s road to riches.

In 1966, Drysdale and Koufax shocked the baseball establishment by staging a spring-long tandem holdout. Koufax was coming off a 26-victory season, and Drysdale was a 23-game winner. They finally got a 60% raise. That gave Koufax $120,000, Drysdale an even $105,000.

Drysdale looks at today’s negotiations and shakes his head.

“It’s a damn crime it went this far,” he said. “If you put some of these teams on the open market where they had to compete against an IBM or some other companies, they’d be broke in six months. If they ran these clubs as a business, like Walter O’Malley did and Peter O’Malley does with the Dodgers, or like Baltimore in the American League, they could be successful. Most, though, don’t go about it the right way. Consequently, they are losing money.

“Some of these negotiations are ridiculous. They’re talking about expansion. With the owners losing money, who in the hell is going to start a team for $25 million to $35 million? You can’t tell someone: ‘You have to start a team.’ ”

Still, Drysdale does not foresee a strike.

“(Commissioner) Peter Ueberroth will have both sides sitting there for 24 hours if necessary to settle this thing. Ueberroth is resolved not to have a strike.

“I don’t know why we have to go through this every four or five years. Why can’t they settle once and for all and etch an agreement in stone for the next 100 years? I guess that’s too simple. Life doesn’t work that way.”

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

1972 STRIKE Jan. 12, 1972--Negotiations start with players asking for 4-year agreement with 25 percent increase in pensions and other benefits. Owners reject proposal.

March 31, 1972--Player representatives vote 47-0 with one abstention to strike.

April 1, 1972--Players go home as strike starts and exhibition games are canceled.

April 4, 1972--Neither side budges and regular-season games of April 5-6 are canceled.

April 13, 1972--Settlement reached when owners agree to add $500,000 to annual pension contribution. Season continued from current point of schedule with some teams having 153 games left and some 156. The players lose nine days’ pay.

April 15, 1972--The season begins.

1981 STRIKE

April 1, 1980--The executive board of the Players Assn. votes to boycott last week of spring training and strike May 23 if no contract has been reached.

May 23, 1980--Shortly before 2 a.m. PDT, negotiators avert strike by reaching a 4-year basic agreement. They put off free-agent compensation issue and create a committee to examine the subject and make recommendations.

Feb. 19, 1981--With the committee unable to break the impasse, owners implement their proposal calling for player compensation in addition to an amateur draft choice for the loss of what the owners term a “ranking” free agent.

Feb. 25, 1981--The executive board of the Players Assn. votes unanimously to strike May 29 unless there is an agreement on free-agent compensation.

June 12, 1981--At 930 a.m. PDT, union chief Marvin Miller says, “The strike is on.” No games scheduled that day are played.

July 30, 1981--A pool concept providing professional player as compensation for “premier” free agents ends 7-week walkout. A split-season is installed.

THE CURRENT SITUATION

Nov. 14, 1984--Negotiations begin for a new contract.

Dec. 31--Old contract expires. Sides remain far apart on such issues as salary arbitration, free agency, pensions and television revenues.

March 12, 1985--Owners claim staggering financial losses, including $42 million in 1984, and say the losses will get worse.

March 31--Separate pension agreement expires; players have asked continuation of formula tying owners’ pension contribution to one-third of their national TV revenues--$60 million a year.

April 4--Owners and players agree to expand to four-of-seven-game league playoffs for an additional $9 million in TV revenues, but players want one-third. Money is to be put in escrow until overall contract is resolved.

May 7--Though not a subject of negotiations, Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth announces mandatory drug testing for all non-major league baseball personnel; asks major leaguers to voluntarily accept testing and they refuse.

May 16--Players demand owners open books to demonstrate financial plight; owners agree.

May 20--Owners, attempting to slow spiraling salaries, propose a salary cap for teams similiar to the NBA’s; players balk.

July 8--Players examine owners’ books and claim that instead of a multimillion dollar loss, the owners made $9 million in 1984.

July 15--The executive board of the Players Association sets a strike date of Aug. 6.

July 22--Owners revise financial losses downward and now claim $28.5 million loss in 1984; project $86 million in losses by 1986.

July 30--Owners make $25 million pension offer but tie it to a $13 million player salary increase limit--any increases over $13 million to be offset against the pension contribution; players call plan “crazy.”

Aug. 1--For first time, baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth enters the negotiations. Saying he represents the fans, the commissioner asks negotiators to consider proposals he compiled from fans’ letters, unpaid consultants and his own ideas.