The kind of activity we've seen so far in certain respects is encouraging.

All of the years when people said the relationship was bad, it never was as bad as they said. Now when people say it?s wonderful, it?s not as good as everyone says. There are issues that are in need of working out in a businesslike manner. Hopefully it will lead to harmonious bargaining, but you just can?t tell.

The economics of the industry are good. But my ability to predict what happens in negotiations over the last 25 years has not been good.

The fiscal and economic landscape is not at this point equivalent to what it was in 2001 and '02. And obviously, when you go into bargaining, you deal with what is, not with what used to be. The clubs have made a lot of comments in virtually all of our negotiations about distressed economic conditions. I will be very surprised if we hear very much of that this time.

I do not expect to hear some of the kinds of things that sometimes we've heard in the past about widespread financial distress. We'll see. It's not up to me.

I don't see a need for increased revenue sharing.

Can I give you a precise date? No. Would I expect it to be by the end of the World Series? I would certainly hope so.

I hope it's not going to be contentious. Given the kind of revenue increases we've had and all of the rest of it, I don't know of any reason why it ought to be from our side.

I hope nobody is making judgments about the inquiry before it's done. Bud will make whatever decision Bud makes and we'll go from there.

After the hearings on the House side in March and after receiving the commissioner's letter (re tougher penalties), we had discussions both before and after. There was an agreement that it would be unfair to change the deal in the middle of the season. I then sent the tapes of the (March) hearings to the players. I had an obligation to meet with them all, which I did.