NEW YORK - The 1995 baseball season will be in jeopardy unless the labor agreement that would have saved 1994's postseason is reached.
The final 18 days, the playoffs and the World Series for the strike-torn '94 season were canceled Wednesday by interim Commissioner Bud Selig.
"There cannot be any joy," Selig says. But 34 days into a players strike, "it is no longer practical to . . . preserve the integrity of post-season play."
The end came after a phone conference among the 28 owners; only Baltimore and Cincinnati abstained.
People will remember that it ended "with Bud gnashing his teeth at a news conference," says union chief Don Fehr.
The World Series was last canceled in 1904.
With the plug pulled, attention turns toward next season.
"Don't think for a minute the pressure is off," Selig says. "We must work hard at getting an agreement."
President Clinton agrees, but doesn't "see how we can avoid a serious examination" of baseball's anti-trust exemption that frees owners from labor laws.
Fehr says the union will challenge the exemption.
Atlanta player rep Tom Glavine says opening the '95 season "could be a problem."
If owners "weren't interested in getting it done now, they're certainly not going to get it done during the winter."
The sticking point: the owners' demand for a salary cap.
Among reaction:
-- "I can understand why they don't want to come back," says Phillies catcher Darren Daulton of the fans. "I don't want to come back and play for this group of owners."
-- "The final score for baseball in '94 is zero all the way around," says Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
-- "To shut down the national pastime is the ultimate act of selfishness," says Florida Marlins fan William Ryan.
