Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504210018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sorry, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
After a pleasant winter, Salem finally experiences an Avalanche after years of being snowed under in the Carolina League standings. It's a new team in rarified air - not because this is a Rockies' farm team in the mountains, but because it's above .500 - playing in an old home.
If this all sounds confusing, well, what else is baseball these days?
Municipal Field still is the home of Salem baseball, while a new ballpark remains a diamond in the rough. That's OK, Salem fans are accustomed to being patient after the last six seasons in which the Buccaneers lost 96 more games than they won. Besides, the new stadium is scheduled for completion sometime before the end of the O.J. trial.
The old yard still has one of the game's most beautiful vistas, unless you're a pitcher looking out to the scoreboard and the 323-foot power alley to left-center field. Right-center is 351, meaning you don't have to dial an area code there, either. Is it any wonder the Bucs' mascot was named ``Long Ball Silver?''
Actually, besides the new affiliation, not much is different in baseball since the last game - no longer the last game ever - was played at Municipal Field on August 28, 1994. The majors were supposed to be playing then. They are supposed to be playing now.
The game took a vacation for Donald Fehr and loathing. There were replacement players. Fans also were rooting for the replacement of the owners, not to mention the two new nicknames, Diamondbacks and Devil Rays. The labor pains won't go away. There still is no settlement, just a cease fire, followed by a fire sale in Montreal.
Salem doesn't have a corner on baseball's avalanche. How about the blizzard of moves since pseudo-commissioner Bud Selig told America its national pastime was back? Who's on first? How about who's on the roster, period? ``I don't know'' really could be on third, but Jim Abbott is with the White Sox. Costello? Wasn't he a replacement player?
Then, there are player salaries. They're dropping faster than members of the Simpson jury. There are players taking $3 million paycuts. There are the Homestead Homeless, a collection of name players holding their own spring training camp while hoping to sign for something less than they earned in recent seasons.
Is there any question the owners ``won'' the strike this time? The clubs are getting the fiscal adjustment they wanted - without a salary cap. They still may somehow find a way to get rid of salary arbitration. And if the players strike and stop a second straight season, they'll really be the losers in the eyes of the public.
Of course, it was the owners who messed up the TV package. Not even Kato Kaelin would take the houseboy commissioner's job. So, the game still has more to fear than Fehr himself. It's still fractured worse than Sparky Anderson's syntax.
Then, maybe all of this is just a ploy to keep wild-card teams out of the playoffs.
That's why, even without a gleaming new diamond, the Avalanche is welcome in Salem. Those of us in baseball's bushes no longer only have the game to discuss and cuss.
We have it to watch again.
by CNB