O’Neil Likes Direct Approach

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —  At a time when major league players are making their case for a possible strike, one of the game’s greatest ambassadors said Wednesday that the players should order union chief Donald Fehr to negotiate a new labor agreement promptly.

“I think the ballplayers should go to Fehr and say, ‘Go in and settle this thing,’” Negro league legend Buck O’Neil said.

While the owners believe the union is more interested in preserving the current economic system than negotiating for a new one, O’Neil said he blames both sides for the failure to reach a new labor agreement. And, while Commissioner Bud Selig travels the country arguing that the sport is on the verge of financial ruin, O’Neil said New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner ought to lead owners in demanding that Selig’s negotiating team reach a settlement.

O’Neil, 90, a star first baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs from 1938-55 and now chairman of the Negro League Baseball Museum here, said he never made more than $1,000 per month playing for the Monarchs. But Negro league players could make more money than major league players in that era, he said, by supplementing their income playing winter ball in Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

He does not begrudge today’s players their million-dollar salaries.

“I don’t care how much money they’re making,” he said. “If the money wasn’t there, they wouldn’t be making it.”

The labor strife obscures potentially greater issues in the sport, among them attracting a generation of athletes lost to football, basketball, soccer and golf.

“During my era, the greatest athletes in the world played baseball,” O’Neil said. “The best white athletes played Major League Baseball. The best black athletes played Negro league baseball.

“Right now, the best athletes in the world might be teeing up a ball, dunking a basketball or throwing a football. I believe the last true athlete we had in Major League Baseball was Bo Jackson.”

ON DECK

Opponent--Minnesota Twins, four games.

Site--Metrodome, Minneapolis.

Tonight--5 p.m.

TV--Channel 9 tonight and Friday.

Radio--KLAC (570) tonight, Saturday and Sunday, KPLS (830) Friday, XPRS (1090).

Records--Angels 29-20, Twins 30-23.

Record vs. Twins--1-2.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

SCOTT SCHOENEWEIS

(3-4, 5.43 ERA)

vs.

TWINS’

BRAD RADKE

(4-2, 5.08 ERA)

Update--The Twins are expected to activate Radke from the disabled list today. That’s bad news for the Angels; he is 11-4 with a 1.66 earned-run average against them. After the game, the Angels activated infielder Benji Gil and returned infielder Alfredo Amezaga to triple-A Salt Lake.

Friday, 5 p.m.--Jarrod Washburn (4-2, 3.47) vs. Eric Milton (7-3, 4.93).

Saturday, 4 p.m.--Kevin Appier (5-2, 2.98) vs. Kyle Lohse (4-3, 4.88).

Sunday, 11 a.m.--Aaron Sele (4-3, 5.31) vs. TBA.