They’re Out !

For the second time in four years there is summer without baseball. After nine months of collective bargaining for a new basic contract, the players and owners remain at an impasse, and a walkout has begun. The strike could be settled quickly, or it could wipe out baseball until the World Series or until next spring.

The strike was preceded by the usual hand-wringing about the fans being the ones who suffer, and more of that is expected. In fact, no strike is ever popular, and this one is no different. But when labor and management cannot agree on the terms of employment, labor is free to invoke its time-honored and legally sanctioned tradition: “No contract, no work.”

Regardless of whether you think that the players are overpaid or the owners are losing money or both sides are greedy, most baseball fans agree on one point:

Oh, how we’ll miss baseball. And how we yearn for those innocent days before it became big business. (The owners always knew that it was a business, but everybody else--including the players--thought that it was a sport. It was one delusion that we were happy to live with.)

Fortunately, the final weekend before the strike provided several memorable moments to savor in the absence of new ones. Rod Carew of the Angels got his 3,000th hit the same day that Tom Seaver of the White Sox won his 300th game--both milestones in distinguished careers of future Hall of Famers. Pete Rose of Cincinnati remains 24 hits shy of Ty Cobb’s all-time record of 4,191. Had the players not struck for 50 days in 1981, Rose would probably have passed the Georgia Peach by now.

There was one other incident over the weekend worthy of note. On Saturday Vin Scully, the Dodgers’ incomparable broadcaster, televised two games in two cities on the same day. First he broadcast the White Sox-Yankees game from Yankee Stadium on NBC, then got on a plane and flew to Cincinnati, where he picked up the Dodgers-Reds game in the fourth inning on KTTV here. And he never missed a beat.

C’mon back, Vinnie. C’mon back, players. Summer is empty without baseball.