THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 19, 1994 TAG: 9409170018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
When Ken Burns was making his new documentary on baseball, he no doubt hoped that it's premiere last night would coincide with the baseball pennant race. Alas, that's not going to happen. As far as baseball this year goes, it's strike three.
Last week's decision to cancel the rest of the season, including, for the first time since 1904, the World Series, was nothing if not inevitable. The owners' demand for a salary cap was unacceptable to the players. As a result, there was little to negotiate about. Even the opening of the 1995 season is in doubt.
As the strike has dragged on, however, the debate over its causes has moved away from who has the better side of the argument to the conditions that produced the impasse in the first place. Baseball is a government-protected cartel, ever since Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. declared it so back in the 1920s. Cartels are no good for consumers, in this case the fans, and it ought to be ended.
No one, after all, forced the owners to pay baseball players outrageous salaries. And there is remarkably little correlation between salaries and team performance. The era of free agency - which the owners resisted - has brought about an exciting game, with many teams winning pennants and World Series, not just a few ``dynasties.'' A few franchises, such as Pittsburgh, may be suffering, but the price of a baseball franchise just keeps going up.
So what the all-American sport needs is some all-American free enterprise. Removing baseball's antitrust exemption, which Congress has refused to do, despite the fact that no other sport has similar protection, might not solve all the problems. But it could help get everyone back up to bat again. by CNB