Baseball Fans Fanatically Staying Away

It’s been seven weeks since a federal judge sided with the players union and dashed the owners’ plan to use replacement players.

That’s long enough for reality to sink in. So what have the warring parties learned from their self-destructive behavior? Nothing, of course.

There has been no move to forge an agreement that both sides can live with. Instead, the union has threatened to boycott the All-Star Game, and the owners have worked diligently to overturn the union’s injunction.

Negotiations have been non-existent, and none are planned. Each side has been plotting strategy. The owners kicked out the lawyers who inadvertently sabotaged their strategy to break the union. Lawyers who take no prisoners remain, and the players wait for the worst and with good reason. But they haven’t taken the high road toward reconciliation, either. The union continues to warn that a strike is always possible.

So everyone is back to square one. Objectives have not changed in the face of a reality that includes sagging attendance and sharply lower television ratings. The problem is this: Instead of making an honest effort to negotiate a Basic Agreement that gives both sides something, the goal of the union and the owners is to win, to beat the enemy.

That’s the reason nothing was settled the past two years. The parties had everything they needed to arrive at a settlement - time, hard data, historical perspective - except the will to find a solution.

This time around, things will be different. I never thought I would see the day when the public would become a powerful pressure group in baseball’s labor battles. For at least the last two decades, the two groups of millionaire antagonists couldn’t have cared less what anyone thought outside their tight circles. But if the fans’ apathy continues, the owners and players will have no choice but to negotiate an agreement or go the way of the dinosaur and the leisure suit.

Attendance is down 18 percent from last year. Ratings for ESPN games have dropped a whopping 24 percent. Though no figures have been made public so far, it’s likely that the sale of baseball merchandise also has suffered.

The union has made vague threats about charging the owners with collusion because of free-agent salaries that look more like 1985 than 1995. The owners solemnly proclaim that there is no money to pay for salary increases. They add, “We told you so.”

It’s difficult to argue the point, though the union probably will anyway. The owners took a $700 million hit because of the strike. You can hardly blame them for trying to recoup some of their losses by trimming payrolls. But do they have to be so cheerful about it?

The point is this: If the players initiate a work stoppage this year or next, if the owners impose a lockout this year or next, the sport might as well take a leave of absence for the rest of the decade.

Fans will not be so forgiving in the future. The entrepreneurs and the athletes will be begging for TV ratings “only” 24 percent below 1994 levels if they empty the fields of dreams yet another time.

So if the players want to blame their problems on collusion, they should look in the right direction, to the fans. And if the owners want to see their missing customers return, they better get out of the courtroom and back to the bargaining table.

Fans know that the current fragile truce is only a prelude to the next round of hostilities. They have no intention of supporting a tiresome labor dispute with their cash. Big league baseball is not a necessity.

People can go to a movie or the race track; they can play miniature golf or grill steaks for the neighbors. They can watch kids play baseball. The price is right, and there is no record of any Little League game being called off because of a lockout or a strike.