THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 6, 1995 TAG: 9506060044
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
I REFUSE TO WATCH even one inning of Major League Baseball on television this season.
Why should I invest so much as a thimbleful of TV time in a season that could end abruptly with a players' strike similar to the one that shut down the game last summer?
This sofa spud will not invest another drop of emotion in a baseball season until the millionaire players and fat-cat owners settle their differences and promise to never again shut down the game just for spite. The teams have returned to the field after the strike that robbed us of the 1994 World Series, but an end to the dispute that led to the walkout is nowhere in sight.
What's to stop the players from breaking off negotiations with the owners in a month or two and going on strike again? A few weeks ago, they were talking about boycotting the 1995 All-Star Game in a snit about pension money.
What's to prevent the owners from locking out the players if the talks intended to bring peace between the players' union and management continue to go nowhere?
You guys are not going to jerk me around again.
I won't read a box score, watch a minute of ``Baseball Tonight'' on ESPN or subscribe to The Sporting News until I know that this labor lawyer dude Don Fehr or this acting commissioner gent Bud Selig won't call off the game again just as the pennant races are getting interesting.
Major League Baseball in 1995? No, thanks. I reject the game for now.
I have lots of company in doing so. Twenty-five of the 28 major league teams report a decline in attendance from a year ago. Overall, crowds are down 25.8 percent. On television, ESPN's ratings for baseball have fallen 32 percent.
On TBS, viewership for the Atlanta Braves is off by 23 percent.
Pete Van Wieren, who 20 years ago moved from broadcasting minor league games in Norfolk to the bigs in Atlanta, says there is a feeling of uneasiness among the fans in 1995, a sense of unfinished business.
``Many fans have turned their backs on the game and will continue to do so until the players and owners reach an agreement,'' he said. ``In the minds of many is the thought that a midseason strike could happen again.
``I believe the fans would like to see an apology from baseball, a pledge that baseball is sorry for what happened last year, and that it won't happen again.''
The owners had a chance to make up with the fans but blew it. They could have scheduled double-headers to bring the number of games up from the present 144 games to 162 - a full major league schedule. They declined, and what's left is a bogus season.
Bogus because it will not be a full season of championship baseball. Bogus because the batting averages and pitching records will not cover 162 games. Bogus because after an 8 1/2-month layoff, the teams are playing a game that is less than major league in caliber. These guys are rusty.
``What's mind-boggling about this whole thing,'' said Van Wieren from Atlanta, ``is that the players and owners don't realize the damage they have done to the game. Both sides will have to work hard to get the fans back.''
I'm not back. Are you?
If you have forgiven the selfish louts for messing up baseball, you might want to know the lineup on cable for 1995. The 200,000 or so subscribers to Cox Cable have an abundance of baseball with Sunday and Wednesday night games on ESPN, the New York Mets on WWOR, the Braves on TBS, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox on WGN and the Baltimore Orioles on Home Team Sports and WPEN.
Wall to wall baseball on TV.
But who gives a hoot? It's baseball but it's bogus. by CNB