Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990 TAG: 9003231773
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Commissioner Fay Vincent announced Thursday a compromise with CBS that extends the season and pushes back the start of the playoffs and World Series. Details of the full schedule will be released in the next few days.
Opening Day was delayed a week, to April 9, by the 32-day spring-training lockout, which ended Sunday night. When the settlement was announced, baseball said all teams were set to play 158 games, and that efforts would be made to restore the missing games.
CBS holds the rights to televise the playoffs and World Series, and the network had to give its permission for the postseason schedule to be changed.
"One of the major objectives was to preserve the full 162-game schedule, and I am pleased that we have accomplished that," Vincent said. "I thank CBS and the Players Association for their cooperation in making this schedule adjustment possible."
The National League playoffs will begin Oct. 4, instead of Oct. 2. The American League playoffs were switched from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6. The World Series will begin Oct. 16 instead of Oct. 13.
If the World Series goes to seven games, it would end Oct. 24. Last year, after an 11-day delay because of the San Francisco Bay Area earthquake, Oakland completed its four-game World Series sweep on Oct. 28.
Baseball and CBS each said no changes were made in the financial terms of their four-year, $1.06 billion television contract.
"There were a significant number of issues that we really had to look at," CBS vice president Jeremy Handelman said. "We really had to sift through that and work out a structure for a postseason schedule that would have the least amount of adverse effects on us. "
Baseball said one of the two series missed because of the delayed start will be made up during the regular season. The other series will be played from Oct. 1 to Oct. 3.
Bryan Burns, baseball's senior vice president for television, said there were provisions to deal with rainouts at the end of the regular season, but he did not detail them.
Doubleheaders, day-night doubleheaders and playing on open dates are ways the missing games can be played in the middle of the season. Open dates seem to be the alternative baseball would prefer.
Some opening games already have been rescheduled for April 9. San Diego at Los Angeles, Milwaukee at Chicago and Toronto at Texas are makeups for games pushed back missed because of the lockout.
Handelman said CBS had to consult its entertainment, sales and sports divisions before making a decision.
"There's a lot of impacts your looking at. They affect different days differently," he said.
"Each one of these alternatives had certain significant problems that had to be addressed, and you ultimately had to make a decision about the things that were more reasonably acceptable than others." Baseball's all-money team makes $21 million. C4
by CNB