The End of Baseball?

The End of Baseball?

By Joey Vail, Winsted

I like baseball, and so do my son and many of our friends. My neighbors are fanatics about baseball, and Connecticut is a divided state—we are either Red Sox fans or Yankee fans. My friend Karl is a Red Sox fan and our friend Michael is a Yankee fan. My son roots for the Red Sox and his best friend for the Yankees. So what else is new about baseball in the state of Connecticut? How about the end of baseball as we know it.

We know that the previous baseball strike did tremendous damage to baseball. Some baseball clubs still have not fully recovered financially from that strike. Thank heavens for the homerun races of McGuire and Sosa, and the rivalries of the Yankees and Red Sox, which brought some of the fans back to the fold. Even the Subway Series helped a lot.

Now the players face us with a deadline of August 30 for a baseball strike walkout. The players can't come to a solution of how many millions each player should get. They are a greedy bunch. Even the owners have already conceded to give the players and leagues a 20% share of the their profits. So why can't we avoid this strike?

I have in the last few years enjoyed new sporting events like soccer and the World Cup, the Big Four major tennis tournaments, lacrosse, and many new events that I never watched before. I also enjoy college baseball and basketball, both men and women. I am now watching beach volleyball, women's softball, and Little League baseball and softball games that are presently being shown on TV. It's exciting and fun to watch. The list goes on and on. There are so many new sports that are exciting and can be watched live or on TV that I wonder, should we lose baseball, if the fans will just watch something else. Would the players and owners lose their fans’ loyalty?

In the past few months I have heard many commentaries in the news (newspaper, radio, TV) about what might happen if there is a baseball strike. I have talked to high school students, college students, professors, policemen, firemen, designers, owners of businesses, friends and relatives—and what do you suppose is the repeating statement made by all these people? I hear you: So what?

If they strike, no one I spoke to will go to a baseball game or watch it on TV ever again. Scratch the sports pages in the newspapers, Sports Illustrated and other sports magazines. It's all over. The fat lady has finally sung.

There definitely will be a lot of empty sports stadiums that owners will have to sell to developers or turn into parking lots. And I sure hope the baseball players got their degrees in college and were paying attention, because they will need it. If these players are recent college grads and haven't banked much, they will need a job of some kind. Maybe they can be the parking lot attendants.

I believe that even if they do not strike, they will still lose some fans. I know they have lost me.