Baseball Strike

News of the dayLawyers for players and owners planned no talks during the Labor Day weekend, the first without major-league baseball since the holiday began in 1894. Because the Jewish New Year begins Monday night, no talks are expected until Wednesday at the earliest.Games lostFifteen games were canceled yesterday. The total number missed is 284. Only 385 games remain on the schedule.Quote"I knew this baseball strike would be a particularly bitter strike when I heard that most Rotisserie League owners refused to open their books."

The heater rides in at 91 miles an hour, belt-high and straight, giving Orioles hitter Matt Wieters a good view of what looks like a strike in the making. As it reaches the plate, it dives toward the ground. No mortal can say for sure whether the fastball from Angels pitcher Jered Weaver would have grazed the imaginary border of the strike zone, located at Wieters' knees. But umpire Kerwin Danley has called "strike" on two previous close pitches. Wieters swings, awkwardly. His slow roller ends the inning.

The seats at Oriole Park aren't the only things that will be empty during the baseball strike.Cash registers at downtown businesses, the pockets of hourly stadium workers and bartenders, even state and city coffers also will be more barren."

So Ann Romney never worked a day in her life. Maybe there were times when she enjoyed her "work," but that brings to mind the gist of Brooks Robinson 's comment during the baseball strike: "I'll strike along with the rest but, frankly, I'd play for nothing; I love playing baseball. " So I guess Brooks Robinson never worked a day in his life either. Or how about the fireman who waits in the firehouse for a fire and never had one for a week. Did he not work that week? Perhaps Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen meant that Ann Romney never received a wage or salary for "work.

Two former Baltimore Orioles players top the list of participants in a public panel discussion on the major league baseball strike at 7:30 p.m. April 4 in McDaniel Hall Lounge on the Western Maryland College campus.Entitled "When the Cheering Stopped: Can Baseball Recover from the Strike?" the discussion will center on the strike's impact on baseball fans.Featured panel members include Larry Sheets, an outfielder and designated hitter with the Orioles from 1984 to 1989 who was voted the club's Most Valuable Player after the 1987 season.

They may be just a day away from The End now. Maybe two. So this ought to be a time of frantic activity in the baseball strike. Or at least a time of frantic behind-the-scenes brainstorming.Instead, there is almost a sense of resignation, as if the two sides are merely waiting for the inevitable bomb to drop.There were, once again, no negotiating sessions yesterday. By all accounts, there was not even any meaningful contact between owners, players or any of theier representatives.Interim commissioner Bud Selig denied a Chicago Tribune report that he would announce the cancellation of the season and World Series on this the 32nd day of the strike.

BY NOW THE post-election interpreting is over, and, surprisingly, nearly everyone got it wrong.The pundits say the Republicans romped because they were the party of smaller government and lower taxes and were tougher on crime, and because Newt Gingrich was a brilliant strategist.Well, when haven't they been the party of smaller government and lower taxes and been tougher on crime? And Newt Gingrich has been around for years without being a genius. Why were things so different in 1994?The answer is simple: It's the baseball strike, stupid.

I'll let you in on a dirty little secret, one that guys aren't supposed to admit:Most of us don't care about the baseball strike.That's right. We don't care if it ends tomorrow or next year.We don't care if the players win or the owners win.We just don't care.To me, it's like reading about some tractor strike in a Baltic country. If it ends soon, swell. If it doesn't, that's OK, too. (P Doesn't change my life.I don't dislike baseball. I have an average interest in sports. And going to the ballpark can be a great day.But getting tickets to see the Orioles play, especially on a weekend, is virtually impossible.

Country music continued to rule Baltimore radio last fall, as WPOC-FM (93.1) earned its highest ratings ever in the quarterly Arbitron audience measurements.The station marked an overall 10.9 share among listeners 12 and older from October to December, up from an 8.3 figure. That was well ahead of second-place WBAL-AM (1090). The news/talk station suffered from the lack of postseason major-league baseball, slipping from an 8.0 share to 7.4. (Each share represents about 3,600 listeners in an average quarter hour.

"What would happen," Slats Grobnik asked, "if the bartender in this place went on strike? Would I die of thirst, or even worse, of the shakes?"Of course not. If such a crisis occurred, we could walk down the street to another joint."Yeah, but what if every bartender in the city went on strike and no replacements were hired, what would happen then?"Then we'd go over to your house or mine and get something out of the refrigerator or pantry."Yeah, and my wife wouldn't have to phone and ask if I left yet, because I'd already be home."

Baseball's Ad Hoc Committee on Re-Integrating the National Pastime met yesterday in the home clubhouse about an hour before the first pitch of the re-scheduled Jackie Robinson Night at Camden Yards. Two of the Orioles' African-American players, later joined by the third, stood in front of a locker with a writer before the game and batted around ideas for keeping the memory of Robinson alive beyond the landmark-anniversary celebrations - and for taking the next step, preventing players like themselves from disappearing altogether.

LET'S CEASE with the debate over whether yesterday's congressional hearing on steroids in baseball should have taken place. The hearing was interminable, but also useful, dramatic, vital and at times unforgettable. If it hadn't taken place, the weakness and outright fraudulence of the sport's fledgling anti-steroid program never would have come to light. If it hadn't taken place, we wouldn't have witnessed a desperate Mark McGwire tearfully ducking question after question with the lame excuse of "not wanting to talk about the past," his sad reluctance offering the day's most powerful commentary on the shame of steroids.

THESE OBVIOUSLY are troubled times for the NHL, which is embroiled in a nasty labor dispute that is threatening to wipe out the 2004-05 season. NHL owners want a salary cap, and they have locked out the players to force them to accept it. The players have countered with a luxury-tax plan and have been told where they can stick it. Forgive me if this all sounds way too familiar. Major League Baseball went down this road in 1994, and it took years to win back the full confidence of disgruntled fans.

So a baseball strike was avoided. Both sides OK'd a luxury tax that ought to curb the buy-a-title trend in the game that's supposed to be fair. America's game. Minnesota, the small-market team fingered for contraction, will win its division. Oakland's record winning streak will count. Travis Driskill, the 31-year-old O's rookie who slaved 10 years in the minors, all the while dreaming of "just one pitch" in the bigs, will have tossed a major-league season. Everybody hates Bud Selig. All's right with the pastime.

NEW YORK - Negotiators for Major League Baseball's players and owners - faced with today's union-imposed strike deadline - were working early this morning trying to hammer out a new labor agreement. Owners and the players association were attempting to reach a compromise on the troublesome luxury tax proposal that has been the major obstacle to a settlement. Union officials contacted player representatives for the 30 major-league clubs by conference call at 11 p.m. to report they were nearing a deal, but they also cautioned that there was still ground to cover overnight to ensure labor peace for another four years.

Dull baseball is hurt by its greedy players Sun columnist Mike Preston hit the nail on the head when he said the sometimes dull game of professional baseball is losing fan support from all age groups ["Go ahead, strike; game has been out for long while," Aug. 17]. How many times in a game does a batter let the first pitch go by, step out of the box to upset the pace of the pitcher or to get a sign from the third base coach or take time to adjust his batting gloves? And pitchers are required to throw four outside pitches for an intentional walk.

There's only one way to appreciate the full impact of a baseball strike on the true fan. And that is to catch the popular 24-hour sports call-in show on WBAM, with hosts Billy Babble and Jake Jamoke. So let's listen in:"Yo, we got Joe from Stickney out there on his car phone. Yo, how you doin', Stickney Joe, yo?""Hey, Billy and Jake, you know, you guys are doing a great job there, hey, hey?""Yo, thanks there, Stickney Joe, so what's up, what's doin', what ya say, what ya know, hey, Joe, yo, yo?"

In an article in yesterday's Sun, President Clinton's intervention in the baseball strike was compared to John F. Kennedy's intervention in a "crippling steel strike." Actually, Kennedy interceded in response to steep increases in steel prices announced after the industry raised wages because of a strike threat.The Sun regrets the errors.WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, after vainly beseeching major-league baseball players and owners to "give us back our pastime," announced last night that he would ask Congress to pass a law requiring the six-month baseball strike to be settled by binding arbitration.

Baseball's troubled labor situation is nowhere near resolution, and the increasing friction between management and the Major League Baseball Players Association has put everyone - players, owners and fans - on high alert for another damaging work stoppage. So no one could have been particularly shocked at a report in yesterday's Los Angeles Times that the union had tentatively settled on Sept. 16 as a likely strike date if slow-moving collective bargaining negotiations fail to produce an agreement.

In the wake of a botched All-Star Game, amid rumors of illegal steroid use on the field, and in the shadow of growing disparity between rich teams and poor, the 2002 baseball world holds its breath. The most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement expired a year ago. Players' Association chief Donald Fehr aims to shut out any excuse the owners might have for imposing a salary cap this off-season. It doesn't seem to matter that a cap might be vital to the game's future health. The looming question, then: Are the players going to strike?