ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010117
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Major-league baseball begins the season with no labor agreement, no commissioner, no Hall of Fame electees by the writers, no Don Mattingly, no Dave Winfield, no Sparky Anderson and probably no Ozzie Smith for much longer.
But at least it begins the season - even if Oakland must do so in Las Vegas.
Cal Ripken Jr. has played 2,153 consecutive games, but he hasn't played 162 in one season since 1993. Gosh, that seems so long ago. In Chicago, Ryne Sandberg was playing for the Cubs and Michael Jordan was playing for the Bulls.
They are again. And Busch Stadium has installed the kind of grass the Clydesdales can eat. So, all is right with the spinning baseball world then?
Not really. The umpires say they're going to call a lower strike. What they need to call is a higher strike. Really, most people don't care what kind of strikes are called by Larry Barnett, Al Clark, Randy Marsh and Spanky Froemming, as long as Don Fehr doesn't call one.
The game's labor impasse isn't settled, but the talks do seem to be rounding third and heading for a new basic agreement. Attendance in 1995 was down 20 percent from the previous season, and there have been numerous empty seats at exhibition games in Florida and Arizona. Still, it appears fans want to embrace the game again, even if it means watching Darren Daulton trying to play left field on the Veterans Stadium artificial turf.
What baseball needs is what it apparently will get - a full season. In proposing and designing interleague play, the national pastime is getting ahead of itself. Ditto with the suggestion of Arizona owner Jerry Colangelo for a neutral-site World Series. Maybe he should worry about getting his expansion Diamondbacks to first base first.
The last time someone tried something as radical as interleague play - moving the Cubs to the National League West Division - he was soon gone. Whatever happened to Fay Vincent anyway?
This does not mean the game should ignore the possibility of a series between the Baltimore Orioles and the transplanted Arlington Astros in future seasons. Sometimes, change is good. The game really got a charge in more than the Pacific Northwest with the extra round of playoffs last season.
With Opening Day arriving in March for the first time in the game's history, there are more pressing matters, such as trying to figure out how soon - very - the Avalanche farmhands who pitch at Salem Memorial Stadium will be working in Colorado. Hey, the best pitchers at Coors Field still are those filled with the stuff for which the ballpark was named.
Actually, this probably is a season that could be shortened and it wouldn't matter, because it appears everyone will be playing to catch the two teams that played in the World Series last year.
The World Series may be on the Fox Network for the first time, as Tim McCarver sets a record by doing the Series for his third network, but there's a good chance it will look like the last one on the field. Cleveland and Atlanta are the best teams again. If anything, they look improved from last season.
In this crystal baseball, there's potential bad news on Northern Virginia's bid to land a club. Houston might win the NL Central. Fans will start showing up at the Astrodome. Club owner Drayton McLane, under pressure from fellow Lords of the Big Flies, will keep the 'Stros in Texas.
Some other predictions? This will be Tommy Lasorda's last season as the Los Angeles Dodgers' manager. Ray Knight will explode or be fired as the Cincinnati Reds' skipper by midseason. Randy Myers' crash will leave the Baltimore Orioles a closer short of the American League pennant. Someone will sign Darryl Strawberry. The Royce Clayton-Ozzie Smith controversy will hurt the Cardinals more than their short pitching staff.
The Orioles, Indians, Mariners, Braves, Astros and Dodgers will win divisions. The wild cards will be a song - New York, New York. The two Canadian clubs will finish in last place.
With fresh ownership, the Pirates won't play much better, nor draw much better. Montreal shortstop Mark Grudzielanek's last name will be misspelled more often than mine.
The Cuban Olympic team will try to defect, en masse, in Atlanta. Ted Turner will make a big-bucks offer for the team. And when the Braves win the World Series, he will light a Cuban victory cigar.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB