Andy MacPhail obviously is not afraid to work overtime.
Already one of the game’s only executives to serve as his team’s CEO, president and general manager, MacPhail was appointed to baseball’s negotiating committee Tuesday by Commissioner Bud Selig.
While owners such as Colorado’s Jerry McMorris and Boston’s former owner John Harrington have participated in previous negotiations, Selig said this is the first time baseball formally has appointed an owner to the five-member committee, which will try to negotiate a new Basic Agreement with the players association.
“Andy was so logical given his background, his intellect, everything about him,” Selig said.
MacPhail, who plans to attend every negotiating session, will pass along more of his Cubs duties to Jim Hendry, the team’s vice president of player personnel.
“Jim will do progressively more and more,” MacPhail said. “But I don’t anticipate any title changes within the organization.”
MacPhail, who repeatedly has denied interest in becoming the game’s next commissioner, said he felt compelled to accept Selig’s appointment when they met Saturday.
“My family has been in baseball for four generations now and it has provided a great way of living,” he said. “If you’re called and asked to participate in something, I think you have a responsibility to do it.”
MacPhail’s grandfather, Larry, and father, Lee, were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after lengthy careers as executives. Lee MacPhail also served as American League president and as the owner’s chief labor negotiator.
MacPhail’s nephew, Lee, was named scouting director of the Expos last week.
“This is the greatest sport there is and in some ways we’ve never been more popular,” Andy MacPhail said. “We all have a responsibility to try to reach agreements that . . . keep the game playing in an unabated state.”
Selig said MacPhail’s experience and “calm demeanor” are key attributes. A baseball executive since 1977, MacPhail will be expected to stand up to the union in the way that incoming MLB President Bob DuPuy, MLB executive vice president for labor Rob Manfred and outside legal counsel Howard Ganz cannot.
“There are so many club issues here,” he said. “I wanted somebody who really understands not only the economics of the game but all the other rules changes we are talking about.”
Selig plans to coordinate negotiations through the committee rather than sit at the table. This might not please the players, who believe Selig is the real dealmaker.
For his part MacPhail doesn’t know exactly what to expect.
“I think it will be a relatively small role but I do have a baseball operations perspective on things,” he said. “It will be their call.”
MacPhail said he has “stayed out” of labor issues in the past few years.
“I’m a novice,” he said. “I’m coming in off the bench and adding to the team.”
Meanwhile on the labor front, in a move that could provoke an angry response from the union or even force trades of high-salaried stars, baseball is placing restrictions on the debt teams can assume.
In a March 7 letter, Selig informed teams they have until June to get in compliance with the rules, which stipulate a team can’t have debt higher than 40 percent of its asset value.
Selig’s letter said teams could be fined, lose their payments from national broadcasting contracts or even be placed in trusteeship if they fail to comply with the rules.
