THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 7, 1995 TAG: 9502070007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
The conclusion is inescapable: The only way to save the ``national pastime'' is to nationalize it. Yes, Nationalized Baseball. Sort of like midnight basketball for millionaires. . . . Is there a government job-training program for the unemployed by greed?
Getting government funding for Nationalized Baseball should be easy: Apparently the only people still interested in the major problems of the Major League are the members of Congress whom the players and owners are wooing and the president who's prepared to force an end to the dispute.
But then, it's been a while since Washington had a baseball team; like, maybe, the last time the nation had a balanced budget. Maybe that's why nostalgia's getting the better of the nation's capital, which has never considered ``budget'' a verb and is now on bankruptcy's brink.
So here are two suggestions for the federal mediator:
(1) Throw the players, the managers and Washington Mayor Marion in a room until they can answer this question: At a minimum of $4 million per, how many baseball players does it take to bail out D.C.?
(2) Draft 'em.
Send the players greetings, shave their heads and pay them with a checkoff on the form 1040 like the checkoff for presidential campaigns: ``Your contribution to Nationalized Baseball will not raise or lower your tax liability.'' Who knows what it'd do for batting averages. by CNB