Baseball Strike

THIS IS what life is like without major-league baseball:You read the sports section in about five minutes.The late TV news is over in no time.The kids, who miss the sport as much as I do, spend endless hours watching baseball videos. They've practically memorized the highlight films of the 1992 and '93 World Series, and I tell them to enjoy the action, since it's likely we won't have a '94 Series. When they weary of highlight films, they'll put on the video for "Sandlot" or "Rookie of the Year" or another baseball film.

WASHINGTON -- For President Clinton, the baseball strike and the controversy over Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. have something in common. Each has offered him an opportunity to change the perception of his presidency that has been most politically damaging -- the view that he has been weak and vacillating.The conventional wisdom had been that Clinton would be taking a foolish risk if he intervened in the baseball strike. If he failed, the theory went, he would suffer still another political embarrassment.

WASHINGTON -- It's not as if he didn't have enough things on his desk already -- after all, it took him an hour and 21 minutes just to list them in his State of the Union speech. But now President Clinton has added the baseball strike to his portfolio."The First Fan weighs in!" said Paul Begala, a political adviser to the president -- and Orioles season-ticket holder."He must really have liked throwing out the first ball," quipped another aide.Mr. Clinton's passion is not baseball. It is not even the Super Bowl.

Sarasota, Fla. -- The route to Ed Smith Stadium is dotted with distractions. There is the Ringling Museum of Art, the Mote Aquarium, a greyhound track and, of course, the glistening, white-sand beaches that stretch the length of Florida's Gulf Coast.So, if you're looking for a major decline in tourism because of the baseball strike, you've come to the wrong place."There has been only a minuscule negative impact on tourism in the Sarasota area," said Larry Marthaler, executive director of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau, "because there are so many other reasons to spend your winter vacation here."

Fans, strike backRegardless of which side you are on, the real losers in the baseball strike are you and me, the fans. I am sitting here looking at 61 useless Oriole tickets that were to be used by myself, family and friends over the course of the rest of the season.I just saw on TV the procedure for getting my money back -- mailing them back to the Orioles is one of the options. Fellow fans, that's exactly what I intend to do -- in 61 envelopes. Yes, it will cost me around $20 to do this; however, it will make me feel immensely better.

Nick Foster of Baltimore sprinted with bat in hand to home plate at Camden Yards, took some practice swings and dug in. He then lined two pitches onto the outfield grass.Not bad for an 11-year-old who had stepped onto the grass at Camden Yards only once before -- during a tour. But that's why Foster is one of five area kids advancing to The Ballpark in Arlington for Major League Baseball's Pitch, Hit & Run national finals.He refuses to let the pressure get to him."I wasn't really nervous," Foster said.

If there is a revolt within the ranks of baseball ownership that leads to a softening of management's hard-line bargaining position, it probably won't start in Baltimore.The baseball strike has entered its seventh day and the discomfort level may be higher in the Orioles' front office than anywhere else. But it seems unlikely that owner Peter Angelos has been around long enough to hold significant influence with the number of large- and middle-market teams necessary to alter the course of the negotiations.

ONCE I WAS a baseball addict -- addicted to the easy money that the sport brought me. I became dependent on baseball for my living during the summer and early fall. I had to because the cab business is usually slow during that time.Every time a game was scheduled, I knew I could go to any downtown hotel and, within seconds, be on my way to Camden Yards with a safe, high-tipping fare in my taxi's back seat. I knew that anytime after the seventh inning I could head for the ballpark and immediately grab a fare.

Even in troubled times such as these, we must find some solace in song. With a looming baseball strike -- quick, look out behind you! -- it's enough to take us back to the days of the British Invasion, when the only problem was that the Phillies still thought the majors were on a 154-game schedule.With apologies to Gerry and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, the Searchers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Chad and Jeremy, Wayne Fontana and every one of his Mindbenders and especially to Peter and Gordon (and while I'm apologizing: Mom, I'm really sorry, but I didn't mean to knock Jeff down that flight of stairs at Bubbie's house)

Tired of reading about O.J. Simpson?Fed up with the baseball strike?If so, you might be part of an apparent trend among the American magazine-buying public that is turning away from the supermarket tabloids and shunning the inside skinny on the national pastime.While nations do not stand still long enough for snapshots, the passing interests of a nation can be seen in the public's reading habits -- specifically, the magazines people buy.And, according to the most recent circulation figures from the Schaumburg-based Audit Bureau of Circulations, the traditional tabloids and baseball-related publications suffered significant declines in circulation in the last six months of 1994.