Baseball Strike

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."

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- I used to get upset hearing people categorize major-league baseball players as overpaid, under-motivated so-and-so's who don't appreciate how well off they really are.Those people don't know these men on a personal level. How can they suggest that they're all alike simply because of what they do for a living?Sure, some of today's players are spoiled rotten, interested only in squeezing whatever they can out of the game without putting anything back in. But there are good, hard-working men who play the game, too.It's like anything else.

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.

Running with the bulls at Pamplona highlighted Brian Knoerlein's European summer. Running the aisles at Camden Yards, selling Cracker Jack or beer, is how he plans to pay for it.That's what brought the Middle River science teacher, and hundreds of other hopefuls to a job fair at Camden Yards yesterday.Aramark Corp. had hoped to hire about 400 people to work concessions, restaurants and other operations at the ballpark.The company is hiring more workers this year to staff concessions formerly operated by church and other nonprofit groups.

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress are listening to their constituents about the baseball strike -- and the constituents are saying that America has bigger problems to solve than a dispute between overpaid players and super-rich owners.Democratic and Republican senators lashed out at both sides during a subcommittee hearing yesterday on baseball's antitrust exemption. They vowed not to pass either of the two bills introduced Tuesday that partially repeal the 73-year-old exemption in an effort to end the six-month-old strike.

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.

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.

.TC Jumping in to try to settle the baseball strike seems like a no-brainer for President Clinton: What politician, after all, wouldn't want to claim credit for rescuing the national pastime?But that'll be possible only if everything breaks the right way, which seldom happens in politics, as in baseball.What Mr. Clinton would like, of course, is to use the impressive powers of the presidency to jawbone the sides into a compromise. That was unlikely from the start, however.Without voluntary agreement, the president could push Congress to take action.

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.

Intervening in the baseball strike, Bill can either go deep or strike out. There are no bunt singles in this game.Republican senators are studying ways to repeal affirmative action, followed by the 19th and 14th amendments.Don't look now but Speaker Newt is saying all the right things about federal responsibility for D.C.