By Fred Claire SportsTicker Contributing Editor

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- There are a lot of good reasons why Don Fehr and the Major League Baseball Players Association didn't establish a strike deadline Monday.

One of the valid reasons, however, may not even have occurred to Fehr and the players.

Major League baseball, you see, lost one of its all-time great performers on Monday with the passing of Enos "Country" Slaughter.

It wouldn't have made good sense for the players to target a date when they potentially could walk off the field on the day that Slaughter passed away.

Slaughter, as you may know, never walked off a Major League baseball field in his life. He ran off the field; just as he ran out ever ground ball he ever hit; and just as he ran down every fly ball that came his way in the outfield.

If there is a player whose hustle and all-out play should be symbolic of Major League baseball it is Slaughter who would serve as the statue.

Slaughter learned the lesson of hustle at an early stage in his career. He was playing for Columbus, Georgia, in 1936 when his manager, Eddie Dyercaught him walking off the field and confronted him.

"He told me if I was tired he would get somebody else to play," Slaughter recalled in a 1994 interview. "From that day on, I ran from spot to spot."

I had the pleasure of watching Slaughter play when I was a youngster. My father would take my brother Doug and I to Crosley Field in Cincinnati to see the Reds play the St. Louis Cardinals.

My brother Doug was a great Cardinals fan and he was enamored with Stan "The Man" Musial.

I rooted for the Reds but the Cardinal player who always caught my attention with his all-out play was Slaughter.

In later years, during my 30-year career as a member of the Los Angeles Dodger front office, I had the opportunity to meet and get to know Slaughter.

When we started to stage Old Timers Games at Dodger Stadium, Slaughter was on our list of invitees. There was a period of time when I would be in charge of one of the Old Timers dugouts and my boss Arthur (Red) Patterson would have the other dugout.

Our job was to be sure all of the Old Timers Game participants would be ready for their introductions to go onto the field for a bow and also to be sure every player who wanted to participate in the game had the opportunity to do so.

Enos had to be in his mid-60's when he participated in an Old Timers Game at Dodger Stadium. He was in uniform and he wasn't dressed just to take a bow. I'll never forget that he hit a ground ball to second base and ran to first with all of the strength and determination he could muster.

It was typical Enos Salughter. Just as it was in the 1946 World Series when he scored all the way from first base on a line drive to left by Harry (The Hat) Walker to give the Cardinals the championship.

It is the excitement of the games and the all-out play that the fans want to see. It is another exciting World Series just as it was in 1946 and just as it was in 2001 that the fans care about.

Enos Slaughter played Major League baseball for 19 seasons and compiled a lifetime batting average of .300. He played in 10 consecutive All-Star Games and compiled a batting average of .391. He gained a spot in the Hall of Fame in 1985.

Slaughter never made a great deal of money during his career. He played at a time when the owners held the power.

Time has changed. The power today belongs to the Players Association.

On Monday, Fehr and the players elected to use their power in a way that made sense. They chose to continue to negotiate rather than let the discussions be overwhelmed by a strike deadline date.

It made sense for all of the right reasons. Besides, talk about walking off a field just wouldn't have played well with the passing of a man who ran as hard as he could until the very end.

(Fred Claire joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1969 and was a member of the front office until June 1998, advancing to Executive Vice-President and becoming general manager in 1987. He currently lectures on sports at USC, is a consultant for the investment group Bullpen Baseball Partners and is a strategic consultant for SportsTrac Systems of Boulder, Colorado. He can be emailed at fclaire@sportstrac.com)