If They Watch It, Newt Says, Then Major Leaguers Will Come To The Real `Field Of Dreams’

Movie buff and House Speaker Newt Gingrich has once again suggested Hollywood has simple solutions to tangled national problems.

In a news conference after his weekly history lecture at Reinhardt College on Saturday in Waleska, Ga., Gingrich said striking baseball players and team owners might break their 6-month-old impasse by studying a 1989 baseball movie.

“Maybe they ought to watch `Field of Dreams’ and ask themselves if there is a spirit of cooperation here that they can use. They should go off to someplace nice. A ski resort in the Caribbean maybe. I don’t care where they go, just as long as they get together,” said Gingrich, a Georgia Republican.

The speaker said such a retreat would be better than imposing a settlement by congressional action.

Gingrich created a stir in December when he suggested Hillary Rodham Clinton watch the 1938 movie classic “Boys Town” before dismissing his proposal that welfare reform include placing more children in orphanages.

Relief pitcher John Franco says a lot of players share frustration over the stalled talks that have kept major-league players on strike for six months.

Franco, reacting to remarks made by Lenny Dykstra of the Philadelphia Phillies, said he understood the outfielder’s comments about a need for players to rethink their position.

Franco, a free agent, said he would not cross any picket line but understands why players are frustrated.

“They said it wouldn’t be this long,” Franco said. “It gets to be frustrating for all the guys. We all want to get a deal done. The game’s been hurt enough.”