(UPDATED 8-30-2002, AFTERNOON) Well, the major league baseball strike has been averted. I received some great responses to my rant about it earlier today. Thank you for writing to me, I have posted a few of the responses below...

My reaction to today's development is relief. Not relief for the players, not for the fans and not for our national pastime, but relief for the hundreds of scalpers nationwide who would have been left holding tickets with no value as a result of a players strike. Those guys deserve a break every once in a while. I am also relieved that I will not have to find alternative uses for my time. Most of my evenings are spent glued to the television watching baseball or baseball- related programming. What would I have done on a sunny Saturday afternoon if there were no baseball games? Finally I am relieved I will not have to find alternative topics of conversation. I will now have about 6 more weeks to phase in football as my favorite water cooler topic. If there was a strike I would certainly have had to start my morning review of the Boston Globe in the Business or Arts sections, and to be perfectly honest, I'd rather talk about Tony Clark swinging a bat than Eminem swinging one...

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Ambling down my street in a slightly intoxicated, completely exhausted state just before midnight following what could be the Red Sox last game of the 2002 season, I encountered a skunk on the sidewalk about 10 feet ahead of me. I immediately crossed the street and took a different route to my house, leaving the the skunk alone on the sidewalk. Followers of major league baseball have encountered a skunk of their own, in the form of the anticipated player's strike. As the strike date looms, fans are beginning to consider alternate paths, whether it be indifference towards the game itself, or turning to other sources of entertainment, including other sports.

Every year it is reported that major league franchises are losing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, yet team owners continue to pay exorbitant salaries. Texas Rangers owner Tom Hick$ commented that if need be, a prolonged strike should occur, as the entire system needs to be overhauled. This s the same Tom Hick$ who signed Alex Rodriguez for a quarter of a million dollars, and one year later over-paid pitcher Chan Ho Park. He is undeniably guilty of ratcheting up salaries, yet insists the entire system needs to be overhauled. Fiscal restraint would be more effective than a complete overhaul. If teams do not overspend, the free agent market should react accordingly- in the form of more reasonable salaries. How do the owners make money in other places, then throw out all sane business practices by spending with no boundaries in baseball.

Smaller market teams seek a revenue sharing plan. Teams from larger urban areas earn more money through television, radio and advertising. Those in smaller market cannot afford star players because they do not have access to the same revenue streams. The owners bought teams in these locales and expected to earn money. They were not always unprofitable, and if they were, why did they purchase the teams in the first place. The Tigers, Blue Jays and Twins all won championships in the 80's and 90's despite their location. Recently, the Twins and A's have excelled with two of the lowest payrolls in the league. These teams have adjusted their management philosophies in light of the current state of the game. Through prudent free agent spending, wise talent evaluation and smart trades they have built exciting young teams that fans come to watch. If a player is going to be too expensive in the future, they trade for prospects with potential or veterans who will contribute. Some argue that the higher profile teams need the small market teams to continue. The argument works both ways. The Yankees need the Royals as much as the Pirates need the Diamondbacks. No teams = no games. The validity of this argument eludes me. Smarter management is necessary in order to reduce the disparity. Build a successful team, your stadium will be full, and more revenue opportunities will present themselves. Besides, in what industry do successful companies use revenue sharing to subsidize competitors?

I have never been a member of organized labor, and if I continue on my current career path, it is likely I never will. Perhaps this is why I am unable to fathom the situation from the player's viewpoint. It is difficult to be sympathetic for someone who makes millions of dollars to play a game for 2/3 of the year. It would be interesting to see what some of these individuals would do for a living if they were not athletes. The greed stems from the owners unbridled spending. No one wants money taken away from them. Most of the America's economy is reeling right now. Baseball is not excluded. Layoffs and downsizing are commonplace in many firms. If teams are suffering from such rough financial times that they are unable to continue, they should be eliminated. This is the one place where it seems the union is blind. They oppose contraction because it will supposedly eliminate jobs. The alternative is that certain teams may go bankrupt. If that happens, players who were employed by them will get no salary at all. This is the horse leading the cart. In what industry are underperforming companies forced to continue to operate by their employees. That is essentially what the union is doing.

sidenote: are the Minnesota Twins a case of life imitating art. Isn't their situation eerily similar to the scenario in the movie Major League. In the movie, the owner wants the team to lose so she can move it to another location. The team plays above expectations and wins a championship, thus foiling the owner's plan. In 2002 Bud Selig looked to contract the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are on their way to the playoffs and no one can imagine them being contracted.

Perhaps a salary cap or revenue sharing would ease the disparity between major league baseball's haves and have-nots, but these "solutions" alone are not enough. It has long been accepted that professional sports are businesses. It is time for those involved to run their teams like successful businesses rather than operating as if they are in a vacuum. Investment, hirings and firings have a direct impact on the quality of the product. Smarter management above all is the solution.

As the players and owners negotiate (bicker,) one party is left out of the equation- the fans. A prolonged strike may win the players continued access to astronomical salaries. It may win a salary cap or revenue sharing for the owners. But no one wants to go near a skunk, and for fans, the strike is a skunk. Major league baseball may lose it's customers, and if that happens, the settlement of the issues will be a nonfactor, as the fans will take another route, and baseball will be left standing alone on the sidewalk.