THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504300186
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
As a promotional tool, ``Baseball is back,'' is more of a bluff than a declaration.
The people who are staying away from major league ballparks the first week of the season are not boycotting the same game that was last played on Aug. 11, 1994.
Is it really baseball when starting pitchers limit themselves to five innings because they didn't get enough work during a truncated spring training?
Is it big-time baseball when the starters, by design, are followed by a relentless stream of relievers, who also are using the regular season for training camp?
Maybe fans are still angry at the owners and players because of the strike. Or maybe some have decided to avoid the parks until the game begins to more closely resemble the big-league baseball they remember.
The one with big-league umpires.
How can the game really be back when the umpires aren't?
Replacement umps work the games while some National and American League umps work construction to put food on the table.
How is this fair to the fan and to the game?
Of replacement umpires, Florida Marlins relief pitcher Bryan Harvey says, ``They're not too good. I don't think they keep up with the game. You can pick out 10, 15, 20 bad calls a game, and they're not even close.''
Imagine baseball, a billion-dollar industry, trying to make do with rent-a-umps. It's shameful and stupid and perfectly in keeping with the bully mentality of the owners, who fired the umpires last winter.
Now, more than ever, the owners need to show they can still keep somebody under their thumbs.
If they are perceived to be giving in to the umpires, the owners fear that they will hurt themselves in future negotiations with the players.
The owners were forced by a court to take the players back. But as unpopular as players are in some circles, even they engender far more sympathy than umpires.
Nobody roots for the umpire, even in good times.
The umpires want a sizable raise over the next four years, but, like the players, are willing to work this season under last year's contract.
The umps also are walking the picket line for better retirement and medical benefits, real concerns that make the players' issues look trivial.
The public should find a way to identify with umpires who haven't had a cost of living increase since 1991.
But so should the players.
It's incredible that only two players - Boston's Jose Canseco and Baltimore's Andy Van Slyke - have spent even a minute with the umpires on the picket line.
When they were on strike, the players wanted everybody in America with a union card to shed a tear for their cause. Even so, these pampered millionaires had no intention of walking a picket line at spring training. They would never stoop to the level of the working class. Instead, they planned to hire replacements to carry signs and hand out leaflets.
Canseco and Van Slyke made only token appearances with the locked-out umpires, and yet their efforts somehow elevated them. At a time when players need to spruce up their images, it's a wonder more haven't hoisted a sign or slipped on a sandwich board.
They haven't, one supposes, because they are spoiled hypocrites.
The owners, meanwhile, give lip service to the integrity of the game. Instead of recognizing the damage they are doing to baseball, they offer up the slick ``Welcome to the Show'' advertising slogan.
The game is back, sort of. But until the owners bring the umpires onto the field again, the show is a pale imitation of what people used to call major league baseball. by CNB