Time’s Man of Year Award Was Certainly Richly Deserved

I see where Time magazine named Peter Ueberroth its man of the year, and I think it’s about time sports people were treated a little more seriously. I never understood, for example, how it was that Bowie Kuhn was overlooked all those years. I mean, they once gave this award to the Ayatollah Khomeni. They’ll give it to anyone. Ueberroth has become this country’s most visible symbol of the free enterprise system since Daddy Warbucks. Ueberroth made the unworkable Olympics actually work. He made the deficit-spending Olympics make money. He brought glory to his country, his city, his ownself. Now maybe you thought the magazine’s profile of Ueberroth was a little too one-sided, a little too adoring. I didn’t think so. I enjoyed reading about how he was born in a log cabin, how he had split rails and how he had to walk miles every day to school. I never knew that he had debated Stephen Douglas. I do know that the business of America is business and that Ueberroth was all business during the Olympics. The first thing he did was plead poverty, a time-honored business tradition. That way, Ueberroth lured thousands of volunteers into working for nothing. He told the RTD that he needed lots of extra buses, but that he didn’t have the money to make up the difference. He charged exorbitant prices for tickets, claiming that the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee needed the money to break even. Well, you know the rest. America has been riding a wave of patriotism ever since. The Olympics made a profit of at least $215 million, and Ueberroth earned a bonus of $475,000. He says he has put the bonus money in a personal foundation that will distribute the money to charity, but he declined to reveal what charities were involved. That’s his right, of course. And it’s one more reason why he’s my man of the year. Now, Ueberroth has a chance for a rare double, a back-to-back Time citation. I don’t think it has ever happened before. But Ueberroth faces the challenge of a lifetime, taking over as commissioner of baseball. He now heads a sport facing crisis piled upon crisis. Teams losing money. Rich players wanting to be richer. Owners squabbling among themselves. In fact, baseball may soon be facing a player boycott. It would take a, well, a Peter Ueberroth to pull baseball out of the fire. The world--and Time--will be watching. It’s true that baseball attendance over the last few seasons has never been greater. It’s true that baseball has a new TV contract that dwarfs any of the sport’s previous contracts. It’s true that virtually every team in baseball has won a division title or been in the race some time during the last five seasons. Still, Ueberroth has fallen back on that tried and true line, pleading poverty. He has said that 18 teams lost money last season. He didn’t say, however, that he was ready to open the books to show which teams had lost or how much they had lost or if they had really lost. That’s my man of the year. Maybe he can get the players to play for free, love of the game and all that. Maybe he can get reduced rates from the airlines to lower travel expenses. This is America’s pastime we’re talking about, after all. But one thing is sure: Ueberroth is going to have some strong competition this season. Last year, all he had was Bishop Desmond Tutu and maybe those volunteers feeding the starving millions in Ethiopia. Oh, and Mary Lou Retton. Ex-sportscaster Ronald Reagan, a two-time Time winner, is already making an early pitch for 1985. The inauguration is set by the Constitution for Jan. 20, the same day as the Super Bowl. So Reagan has decided to have a private swearing-in ceremony on Sunday and then go public with the usual pomp and ceremony the next day. That way, he doesn’t have to buck the Super Bowl, and no one will have to miss the game or the pomp. Now, who can say Reagan doesn’t care about the little people? Also, Reagan may be involved in the coin flip, by remote control from the White House. He knows what’s important. Also in the running is Pete Rozelle, the renowned football commissioner and humanitarian. Rozelle has banned umbrellas at Stanford Stadium for the Super Bowl even though forecasters have said there is a one-in-three chance it will rain. Rozelle says he doesn’t want the umbrellas to obstruct anyone’s view. Apparently, he thinks people would rather be drenched than have their sightlines altered. Of course, Rozelle will be watching the game from a covered box. If he can ban umbrellas, maybe next he can go after handguns. In any event, the Time field is wide open. It’s only January. Maybe Bishop Tutu still has a chance--say, if he buys a soccer franchise.