A Dream Put on Hold : Return of ‘real’ baseball ends a Hollywood scenario

With the “real” players back and the “real” practice games in full swing this weekend, visions of a Hollywood movie scenario are fading. That was the script that had major league baseball owners and the players at such odds that the owners were ready to put every Bubba, bleacher bum and bus-sore minor leaguer in uniform.

It would have been big box office at the theaters, but in reality you knew (hoped) that the first pitch of the season wouldn’t be thrown out to some guy from your Wednesday night bowling league. We say this with no disrespect to such stalwarts as Westlake Village’s Mark Gieseke, Chatsworth’s Pete Kuld, and the others who were seeking their field of dreams in scab baseball.

But this script was written for another era. Say 1904, when the World Series was canceled because the manager of the National League’s representative hated the founder of the rival league. Or 1919, when eight members of the White Sox threw the World Series for a total of $100,000. Baseball has come a long way since those days. Or so we thought.

But if baseball, as a sportswriter put it, “makes the more important moments of living bearable,” you can imagine what it must have done for the guys who almost got to play on opening day. All are guaranteed at least one great story for the grandchildren.

Besides, there is always a silver lining. Had the replacement bit worked out for Kuld, for example, whose permanent home is in Honolulu, playing for Cleveland wouldn’t have been the half of it. He might have had to live there too. Talk about making a sacrifice for a dream.