Now Hear This: Fans must strike before players
“Rich ain’t necessarily smart.” Words of insight from Chester Ben Allen Allgood, consultant in human affairs.
For the purpose of this column that statement adapts very well to the subject of baseball ? America’s pastime ? once upon a time. Baseball now falls somewhere behind the National Football League, and Winston Cup racing, and slightly ahead of canoeing in popularity.
Baseball’s stock fell like a runaway elevator and hit an all-time low in 1994, the last strike. It lasted 232 days and wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years. The struggle since has been well documented.
So, here we go again! Aug. 30 is the date the players union has set to strike in 2002, which would be the ninth work stoppage in three decades. What we’re dealing with here is a feud between the rich (players) and richer (owners). Take your pick as to who’s dumb and dumber.
Baseball’s problem is one of identity. Would somebody please explain to the guy or gal who makes $30,000 a year how somebody who makes $30,000 a day needs a raise! Try and outline this concept to the good folks all over America who work in our factories.
Will the married couple, who both work, grasp the economics of this dispute. Ask the elderly people, living on a fixed income, to identify with an athlete making millions.
Baseball generated $3.5 billion in revenue in 2001, and the average salary rose to a record $2.38 million at the start of the season. How would you like to be the marketing genius trying to sell baseball, with millionaire players threatening to strike against billionaire owners, and Sept. 11 a few weeks away? Your theme song would most likely be ? “Take this job and shove it.”
Does anybody, outside the lawyers for both sides, even understand the issues they’re haggling over? The major stumbling blocks are:
• Revenue sharing – In baseball terminology that translates to what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine.
• The luxury tax – Players upset they’ll have to pay more tax for their gold chains and diamond earrings.
• Drug testing – Owners just want to make sure the drugs players are using are high quality.
• Contraction – Players telling the owners they can’t sell a team if the union doesn’t approve the deal. The inmates have finally taken over the asylum.
They’re calling it a “labor dispute.” I’ve got news for you. This has absolutely nothing – I mean nothing – to do with LABOR! Do these guys really think what they do is labor? Construction workers labor! Child birth is MAJOR LEAGUE LABOR!
The answer America? We, the fans, must strike before they do. No fans! No baseball!
If they’re not real careful President Bush might get mad enough to declare executive “war” on the game. He’s already said if there is a strike, he’s going to be “furious.” We all know what happened the last time there was a reported “Burning Bush.”
(Hope Hines is a TV sports journalist and Nashville personality.)