OKLAHOMA CITY -- Baseball Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins has written an open letter to baseball, calling for players to continue playing while still negotiating a new labor contract.

Jenkins also called for contraction of at least two teams and drug testing.

The players' union has set an Aug. 30 deadline to complete labor negotiations or the players will go on strike.

Jenkins writes in the letter addressed to "Dear Baseball'' that he wants to speak up for baseball fans.

"I just thought, as an individual, things were not going well and I wanted to voice my own opinion'' Jenkins said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "My best advice to baseball is to stay at the bargaining table.''

In the letter, Jenkins wrote: "Play and negotiate, play and negotiate and play and negotiate until you reach a settlement that respects everyone, including the fans who want their team to have stars they can admire for their skilled play.''

There have been eight work stoppages since 1972, but Jenkins said the issues are much more different than when he was playing.

Those issues were about things like pension plans and benefits for the widows of former players, not about teams with payrolls of more than $100 million, Jenkins said.

Former players union head Marvin Miller helped move baseball toward fairer bargaining in the 1970s by putting baseball's problems in terms owners understood, Jenkins said.

Miller helped swing what Jenkins called "the pendulum of power'' toward the players' direction after being in the owners' direction for more than 115 years.

"Now, the players' bargaining team wants that pendulum of power to swing totally in the direction of the players and high salaries,'' he wrote.

"I think players are making more money than owners want them to because of free agency,'' Jenkins said.

If that power continues to move toward the players it could throw baseball off balance and kill fan interest in the game, Jenkins said.

But the issues of a luxury tax and revenue sharing that players and owners are discussing only scratch the surface of what Jenkins considers to be baseball's real problem, a lack of parity at the major league level and too many teams.

"The league needs to showcase better players on a smaller number of teams,'' Jenkins wrote. "There are good players on each team, but not enough of them to justify the number of teams in the league now.''

Two possible candidates for contraction are Tampa Bay and Montreal, according to Jenkins.

"Those two ballclubs are going nowhere. They are just supplying salaries for players,'' he told The Associated Press.

Jenkins, who won 284 games during a 19-year major league career with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox, also called for drug testing at least three times each year.

"Sure, we might have better weight training than when I played,'' Jenkins wrote, "but just look at some of these guys. It defies explanation.''

Jenkins said he decided to write the letter after talking with fellow Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry, Robin Roberts, Tom Seaver and Al Kaline during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction weekend in July.

A letter written then and signed by 40 Hall of Famers, including Jenkins, asked players and owners to agree to a mediator to settle the labor dispute.