[baseball's collective bargaining agreement ]

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The Major League Baseball Players Association and team owners finally reached a Collective Bargaining Agreement on August 30 just hours before a strike deadline would begin canceling regular season games. The agreement ended months of speculation and agony for baseball fans as to whether or not the game would suffer through it's ninth work stoppage. In fact, it is the first time in baseball's history that a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has expired without the cancellation of games. Here are some of the details of the agreement:

• Expires in 2006
• Increases the minimum wage from $200,000 to $300,000.
• Testing for steroids will be allowed through the remainder of the CBA. There will be no testing for other illegal drugs.
• The owners are prohibited from contracting any teams throughout the length of the agreement.
• $230 million will be handed out in revenue sharing in 2003, $243 million in 2004, $258 million in 2005, and $301 in 2006.

Needing a two-thirds majority to approve the deal, the owners voted 29-1 to ratify the CBA with the New York Yankees being the lone dissenter as it would be the hardest hit with the luxury tax. Baseball fans can be hopeful that owners and players will now be more willing to work together to avoid the kind of harmful work stoppage that occurred in 1994.