There are lots of more important issues in the world than whether a bunch of grown men will still be getting paid to play baseball come August. And yet, the prospect of shutting down the season before the World Series prompts a huge sigh, and this plaintive question: What, are they crazy?
Major League Baseball players have been working without a contract since November. Just before the start of the 2002 season, Commissioner Bud Selig vowed that baseball owners would not stage a lockout during the season. And yet there is very serious talk that the players union may go on strike.
The unfortunate result is that Major League Baseball may not make it into the month of August. That is sad–and astonishing.
Baseball has been nearly crippled by its problems. Two-thirds of the 30 teams report declining attendance this year. The falloff has been breathtaking in cities with newer stadiums–declines of around 20 percent in Detroit and Pittsburgh and 30 percent in Milwaukee. The rumors of widespread steroid use have heightened cynicism about the game. The game is about to give up on Minneapolis and Montreal. Nothing has replaced the Sammy Sosa/Mark McGwire home run derby that captured the imagination three years ago.
A strike? Not now. Not when the nation is talking war and terror and homeland security, not when it needs just the kind of pleasant diversion that baseball once provided.
Baseball has had eight work stoppages in 30 years. Make no mistake, fan resentment still smolders from the decision to cancel the World Series in 1994. Would baseball fans forgive the players or management for fouling up the World Series once again? It would be incredibly foolish to put that question to the test.
