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It might be for the best if baseball fans simply concede that baseball is more than sport and pastime; it is economics, politics and ethics. After all, there is plenty of room in baseball's feast to include a few strikes and a dash of controversy. Time magazine may have started the trend when it dubbed the present strike the "Bummet of '94." .
BASEBALL, with all its woes, is still America's greatest obsession. It is quite possibly the only national activity that cuts across all lines of division--gender, ethnic, socioeconomic. Perhaps now, baseball lives most purely in the imagination, whether it be a little-leaguer's hopes of making her first double-play or an old-timer's memory of his first home run, gilded affectionately by the passage of time. .
The future of the NHL's labour agreement between owners and the players' union may have been hinted at in Calgary this week. The largest hurdle on the horizon for the talks is an agreement on the league's first salarycap. .
It is an issue neither side will speak to directly. But it remains a very real proposition, especially with NHL salaries soaring and the health of clubs such as Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver in real jeopardy if the new CBA fails to deliver some kind of cost monitoring on a leaguewide basis.
"You need to have the ability to control your costs and you need to have the ability to do in a way all teams can be competitive where they are," Bettman told reporters in Calgary.
"I have no interest in doing anything other than keep teams where they are, particularly Canadian teams.".
The question is how? Let's not forget the NHL had a work stoppage in 1994 and still couldn't come up with a salarycap.
This season, NHL teams are paying on average $4 million more in payroll than last season. And the Flames, Oilers and Canucks have stressed their existence is at risk if salaries continue to soar.
The sagging fortunes of the Canadian dollar and the economic slowdown afflicting North America pose additional stress for the clubs.
