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Friday, March 5, 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Nation's pastime faces threat on field of greed
Baseball is in danger of striking out. Money is killing our national pastime and most people don't even know it.
Gone are the days of walking down the street to Wrigley or Fenway or Tiger Stadium and catching a day game for about a dollar. The games are at night now so the teams can maximize their television profits.
And the once-proud neighborhoods around the parks have decayed. A lot of people gave up and moved to the suburbs, and so did some baseball teams. Now games are played in places such as Arlington, Texas, and Anaheim, Calif.
So today most people have to commute to get to a ballgame. That means that after buying a ticket, paying to park and getting something to eat, most families are paying more than $100 for one game.
That sounds like a foul ball, and it's keeping a lot of families away from the game.
And the situation is only getting worse. As operating costs increase, so do the prices.
Player salaries are skyrocketing. Free agency has meant that the teams with the most money get the best players — for astronomical amounts of money.
That's frightening for small-market teams such as Kansas City and Milwaukee. They can't afford to pay those salaries.
But players don't care about market size when they sign their contracts. They want money. Never mind the fact that the average player's income has risen from $245,000 in 1982 to $1.1 million this year.
And so many players who had spent their entire careers with one team — like Barry Bonds and Wade Boggs — find themselves in new uniforms this spring. They jumped ship for more money.
Whatever happened to loyalty? It has been forsaken for the almighty dollar.
And for every player who whines that $1 million isn't enough money, there are hundreds of mothers and fathers explaining to their children why they aren't going to see their favorite team.
There are proposals that could help rein in the game. Several owners have proposed an NBA-like salary cap that would slow the growth of player incomes.
Another plan designed to aid teams in small television markets would distribute television revenue evenly among the 28 franchises. That would help teams like the Seattle Mariners, with a television contract worth $1.5 million, compete with the New York Yankees, who rake in $42 million a year in TV money.
These proposals are not perfect. But they do address the fundamental financial problems that are threatening to make our national pastime part of our national past.
Two years ago, one baseball father reflected on the game after being elected to the Hall of Fame.
"My kids," Tom Seaver said, "will be able to take their children to the Hall of Fame and say: 'There's your grandfather. He was pretty good at what he did.'"
That's what the game is all about.
Sadly, it's being sacrificed as the field of dreams becomes a field of green.
Greedy owners and players should start making sacrifices of their own and bring America's game home.
CHRIS MOESER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Balding, fat men are fed up with today's medicine
The day had hardly begun when half a dozen gloom-spreading co-workers asked if I had seen the latest scare story from the medical world.
It appears that really bald guys under the age of 55 are four times more likely to have heart attacks than men who have hairy skulls, or so some doctors claimed in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Those who have mild baldness are still more likely to keel over, but in fewer numbers. Those with only a receding hairline are in no greater danger than the mop tops.
Of course they aren't sure. When they come out with these reports, they're never sure why. They just toss out some statistics, scare the hell out of a few million men, then go off and poke and probe some other sample group.
Why should baldness have anything to do with heart attacks? The doctors say it might have something to do with male hormones, but they aren't sure.
Maybe next week it will have something to do with the relationship between flat feet and suicide or small chins and choking to death on hot dogs.
Besides, this latest report doesn't apply to me. It has to do with men under 55, a sorrowful birthday I've already drowned.
At least I assume it doesn't apply to men over 55. Maybe they asked some older guys and were told: "Mind your own damn business. I'm sick of hearing about your stupid studies."
COLUMNIST
were in our 30's when the medical world started telling us what not to eat, drink or do.
Most older guys feel that wav. We
It started with eggs, bacon, butter and most other dairy products. That led to steaks, pork chops, ribs and anything else that might taste good. Don't smoke. Don't drink. Wait, you can drink—but only one or two glasses of wine, because another study showed that wine could be good for the heart.
And, like a fool, I listened to them. No, I didn't stop smoking, drinking or eating the allegedly deadly foods of my choice, but I listened. That made me feel guilty for not striving for physical perfection, which brought on stress, which will probably shorten my life more than a couple of fried eggs and bacon will.
Now I no longer listen. When I see a headline that says: "Medical findings say men who slouch have..." I turn the page. I don't care what their findings are. Will slouching turn me into a troll or a gnome? I don't care.
Ever since I declared my emancipation from science-induced fear and dread, my conversation with the doc now goes something like this:
"Hmmm, your weight. It appears that you have gained..."
"Oh, shut up. You could use a little meat on your scrawny bones. You wouldn't last 30 seconds in a barroom brawl."
"About your blood pressure. it is..."
"About your blood pressure, it is..." "Stuff it." If my blood pressure is up, it's because I had to sit in your waiting room 25 minutes past my appointment reading dull magazines that are two years old."
"Now, the lab reports aren't what I'd like to see. Your cholesterol..."
"Lab reports? I almost did not survive your lab. That blind woman with the needle stabbed me six times before she found a vein. If it happens again, I'll not only sue you for malpractice, but I'll file a criminal complaint for assault with intent to kill."
"About the smoking..."
"I'll tell you about the smoking. I wouldn't accept an invitation to the White House even if Hillary hadn't banned the weed."
"Other than that..."
"Other than that, give me the bill. I want to go get a pork shank and a beer."
One of these days, I'm going to go public with my own scientific study. It has to do with doctors secretly buying up all the chicken and turkey farms, fishing boats and controlling interests in the companies that make jogging shoes.
Is that true?
Well, probably as true as bad guys getting more heart attacks.
Wike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
We are committed to empowering KU women through information, support and consensus decision-making. We are here to give you the
backing and power of an organization whenever you may need it.
The possibilities and objectives of WSU are endless. We have worked on issues ranging from curriculum improvements to health care to publicizing the prevalence of sexual violence. With other organizations, we have co-sponsored movies, speakers and marches.
Women's group states purpose
We encourage all members of the KU community to voice their concerns about the programs, services and interactions that they need.
As members of the Women's Student Union, we would like to reiterate that we are an organization that supports the rights and concerns of women.
Please consider bringing your ideas, concerns, voice and commitment to our weekly meetings at 5 p.m. on Fridays in the Kansas Union. Also feel free to call our office in the Union or to speak to any of us personally about any of your concerns. The scope of WSU is whatever any of us determine it to be.
Women's Student Union
CHAPMAN Environment suffers brunt of human arrogance
Many people insist on believing that nature operates according to human values. We seem to get a comfortable sense of security by letting religious and social values obscure our view of how nature works. In reality, human values are meaningsign outside the world where nature operates according to our values is misleading, no matter what your personal point of view.
Biologists recognize that interactions among a variety of species are essential to the world's health. Each species is unique, and our own view of them is irrelevant to their roles within the ecosystem. In other words, our emotional attraction to warm, cuddly creatures can make them any more ecologically vital than a cold and creamy creature that crawls out from under a rock.
The notion that certain animals have equal rights is just one of the absurdities arising from our emotional attraction to certain species. The species of concern are inevitably vertebrates, since we find them pleasingly similar to ourselves. It can only be our own arrogance that makes it possible to choose which organisms deserve equal rights. Personally, I'm self-centered enough to put my needs ahead of any other animal's, and I suspect that a lion would do the same, if faced with the choice of killing me or starving. Although we have a responsibility to treat animals as humanely, as possible, it's ludicrous to treat them as if they were humans.
The Gaia hypothesis is a supreme example of assigning human traits to the natural world. According to the most radical version of Gaia, the Earth's organisms manipulate their surroundings in order to actively maintain a great place to live. This makes all the world's organisms a big, happy family, with the notable exception of those pesky human beings. Gaia is emotionally and spiritually appealing because we can so easily imagine that humans are not premise that organisms display the human trait of having purposes and goals. Although Gaia is spiritually irresistible to people who worship nature while condemning human activity, it is scientifically incredible.[2]
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
The most damaging and widespread misuse of human values is implicit in the deeply rooted belief that human beings represent the pinnacle of life, as if all other creatures were stepping stones on the path toward our creation. This belief is so pervasive that scientists once felt compelled to place humans at the very top of the tree of life. Since that time it become clear that relationships among species are better represented by a bush, with humans as just one small twig among innumerable others.
Viewing humans as the pinnacle of creation may actually be dangerous to the future of life. The coming decades are likely to be unique in history, as population growth intensifies the pressure to advance human interests at the expense of environmental health, and vast numbers of species vanish because of human activity. By arrogantly believing that we are the rose on the dung heal of creation, we can easily justify ecosystem destruction whenever it benefits even a small group of people. Since the effects of extinction and ecosystem losses cannot be reliably predicted, we must learn to recognize diversity itself as a value. This can only happen when people realize that we are a part of nature, not its central purpose.
Steve Chapman is an Overland Park senior majoring in systematics and ecology.
GREG FARMER
Editor
GAYLE OSTERBERG
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET. Technology coordinate
Editors
Asst Managing ... Justin Knuff
News ... Monique Guilain
... David Mitchell
Editorial ... Stephen Martino
Campus ... KC Traver
Horts ... David Mitchell
Photos ... Mark Roylands
Features ... Lynne McAdoo
Graphics ... Dan Shauser
STAFF COLUMNIST
Business Staff
STEVE PERRY
Business manager
MELISSA TERLIP
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
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Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ... Brad Breon
Regional sales mgr ... Waxe Baker
National sales mgr ... Jennifer Perler
Office sales mgr ... Ashley Hessel
Production mgrs ... Chantal Abbott
Ashley Langford
Marketing director .. Angela Cleverman
Creative director .. Holly Perry
Classified mgr ... Jill Torney
Art Director .. Dave Haber
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