Spring is upon us. Warm weather, chirping birds and baseball all signify the beginning of spring.
Yes, baseball has begun, but without the real players. Sure, the UA is playing ball Ä kind of Ä but where are Bonds, Piazza, Canseco and Clemens?
Sitting.
Talking.
Bickering.
The real baseball players are busy arguing with the owners. They are discussing salary caps and revenue sharing.
I wish I was sitting here writing about how the Dodgers are going to win the West or how bad the Mets are going to be this year, but the talk now is about how good or bad the replacement teams are going to be.
Who cares?
Baseball is a great game. The pitching, the hitting, the top performances by the best players in the world Ä all these make baseball the game we know and love.
But the owners and players are holding the fans hostage. We can live without baseball. We can also live without TV. But do we want to?
The president and Congress have stepped in and threatened to solve this strike, any way they can. Lifting the baseball antitrust exemption is one way the government proposes to settle this thing.
What would this do, though? It would allow the players to sue the owners in court and where would that leave us? It would also effectively do away with the minor league system presently in place.
Unlike all of the other professional sports, baseball is basically allowed to have