| Fans
debate state of baseball in America
By Daniel Blankenship
On
August 30, 2002, both baseball players and management decided to
resolve their issues rather than stop playing during the regular
season. In the baseball strike, the key issue to hold negotiations
was a raise in the luxury tax. However, the real story is not concerned
with the strike or its resolution. The real story is the state of
baseball in the minds and hearts of fans.
Most people have a problem with millionaires complaining that they
won’t make that extra million this year because of salary
caps or tax issues. American fans won’t empathize with or
care to entertain this absurd complaint. Personally, I haven’t
watched a baseball game since the strike of 1994, which ended the
season without even a World Series.
When not even World War II stopped baseball, the capitalism of today
did. Some argue that the players’ strike is un-American, yet
others protest that their right to strike is at the heart of the
American ideal. In the early 1900s, reasons to strike were apparent.
Strikes were carried out by the newsboys and autoworkers who fought
for fairness and proper pay in their work environments. When you
fight for your rights, America usually stands behind you. However,
fans do not stand behind the players’ grumbling over a slight
cut in their million–dollar salaries.
Fans are a large part of what keeps baseball going. If you take
away the heart of fans, what will America’s pastime be? In
the wake of 9/11, how does the ball players’ beef with their
issues stand against fans’ values? Let’s look at some
of the opinions of the American public. (The following quotes were
taken from stories found on the CNN website.)
A soldier in Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Scott Thomas with the 82nd
Airborne Division, said, “One of them wrote us about his current
discontent with the sport. Baseball players need to stop thinking
of their two houses and five automobiles, and start remembering
9/11 and become patriots and play for the game. I am a Braves’
fan and have lived in Atlanta my whole life. If the playing conditions
are so bad, Tom Glavine can come and stand guard behind one of my
M-240B machine guns and see what the price of his freedom really
is.”
When asked to step in and stay the looming strike, President Bush
said at a barbecue in Crawford, Texas, on August 16, “The
baseball owners and the baseball players must understand that if
there is a work stop, a lot of fans are going to be furious and
I’m one.” At one time, Bush owned part of the Texas
Rangers.
What is the state of baseball? One fan held a sign outside the Yankees’
stadium that read, “If you strike, we strike forever.”
This sentiment sums up the opinions of most American baseball fans.
Baseball may have avoided a strike, yet ripped the heart of out
baseball support. The state of baseball in the eyes of the American
public? We shall see…
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