Major League Baseball (MLB) players and owners reached a five-year collective bargaining agreement that includes extra drug testing and plans to expand the postseason.
The deal, which needs to be ratified by the players and owners, will replace the current pact that expires December 11 and ensures the league will have 21 straight years of labor peace since the end of the 1994-95 strike.
«I believe that this five-year agreement will continue the remarkable popularity and surge that baseball has been on,» MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said at a joint press conference with the MLB Players Association (MLBPA).
«I have said this often and I will say it to all of you today, nobody back in the 70s, 80s and early 90s would ever believe that we would have 21 years of labor peace.»
The new deal includes blood testing for human growth hormone as early as next year and plans to add an extra wild card playoff spot in each of the two leagues no later than 2013.
The agreement was announced while the National Basketball Association faces the potential loss of its season because of a labor dispute and shortly after the National Football League had its preseason disrupted because of a lockout.
«Bud spoke of labor peace and labor peace is good, it’s better than labor war for sure,» said MLBPA Executive Director Michael Weiner.
«This is a good day for baseball not just because we reached an agreement but because of the quality and the nature of the agreement that was reached.»
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