Throughout the first half of the season, weekend columnists
and pundits have expounded on the dire state of baseball, but
that attitude took a hit this weekend as several opinion-makers
took swings at the media's continual bashing of the game. "Have
you noticed how baseball-bashing has slowly ceased to be as
fashionable?," writes TORONTO STAR columnist Ken Fidlin. "It's
as if the game's three-month sentence in purgatory is over and
the perpetrators of last year's heinous crime against society
have been paroled to the halfway house" (TORONTO STAR, 7/16).
Claire Smith writes, in this morning's N.Y. TIMES, "Yes, baseball
is distressed. ... But for all its woes, baseball does not
deserve the 24-hour harangue it seemingly gets at the top of a
million lungs everyday" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/17). CHICAGO TRIBUNE
columnist Jerome Holtzman notes that "Suddenly, it has become
fashionable to bash baseball" and that critics have turned that
"discontent" into charges that the game is too long. Holtzman:
"Knocking the grand old game is the name of the game" (CHICAGO
TRIBUNE, 7/16).
BASH AWAY: In this week's TIME, Steve Wulf bashes the grand
old game and the "Welcome to the Show" campaign. Wulf: "'Welcome
to the Show?' Come up with a collective bargaining agreement, a
full season and a few more players with the spirit of Ripken and
Nomo. Until then, the show won't be entirely welcome" (TIME,
7/24 issue). An editorial in this week's CRAIN'S CHICAGO
BUSINESS calls for "No Mercy For Baseball's Woes" (CRAIN'S
CHICAGO BUSINESS, 7/17 issue). WHAT TO DO? In Miami, Mike
Phillips urges both sides to get together for a new CBA, but he
adds that the new wild card playoff system "will help this season
more than anything else" (MIAMI HERALD, 7/16). N.Y. DAILY NEWS
columnist Bill Madden calls on MLB to replace former MLB
Properties President Rick White, who left his position two years
ago (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/16). NLRB Chair William Gould said both
sides need to return to bargaining. Gould: "Time is a wastin'"
(AP/Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE, 7/17).
