Radiofree West Hartford -- More bits and pieces by Tom Evers

August 25, 2002

This is another bits and pieces column. I think my column tends to be more entertaining when I hit several topics at a time. It's basically like ordering a bunch of appetizers instead of a big dinner. You get to sample several things, and tend to get your fill at the same time.

Column Name Change May be in Order

I've been troubled over the past few weeks about something fairly insignificant. Back when I started writing this column dubbed "The View". I chose the name for its simplistic wording. After all, my view is "the view". Duh, simple enough, right?

However, about a week ago I was watching television and I caught this show called "The View." Instead of getting into a great deal of detail about the show, I'll give you a quick overview-- its your typical group of whining liberal women who sit around a table and attack George Bush and anyone with a hint of conservative bent. Although they occasionally touch on current events, they tend to spend most of their time glorifying movie stars and people from that crowd.

Well, seeing that they are using the title "The View" and I don't want to be associated with their brand of blabbery, I started thinking about changing my column name. Besides, "The View" isn't all that creative, in fact it's rather boring. I should have a more original column name next week.

Hartford Saengerbund Beerfest

Every once in a while you come across an event worth attending. And I'm a harsh critic of fall festivals, which tend to feature fried tempura and rusty carnival rides run by very scary people - known as "carnival people". However, the Hartford Saengerbund Beerfest is a blast! Good beer, fun music and all of the effects of a real Hoffbrauhaus Beerfest. In fact, this year's band comes from the Village of Rain in the south of Germany. You can check out their website at http://www.d-schlawiner.de . At the site you can also download music clips too.

German folk dancing (kind of like what you see in National Lampoon's European Vacation), great fresh potato pancakes, and real German wurst, and don't get me started on the homemade German Chocolate Cake -- I mean, this festival is happening.

It's a great event to get a group of friends together and relax under the big fest tent. When the beer and Jaegermeister start flowing, you'll be in seventh heaven.

Oh, and it's set for August 24th and 25th at 719 North Mountain Road in Newington, Connecticut. Well worth the ride over the West Hartford town line.

Baseball Strike(s Out)

It's one thing to be greedy, but these baseball players are killing me!

I'm one of the biggest Red Sox fans on Earth, which probably accounts for my somewhat cranky disposition, but even this is enough to push me into turning off the game for the rest of the season. It's hard for the average Joe to sit down and accept that poor Barry Bonds isn't getting paid enough for playing baseball. I mean, we aren't talking a few extra dollar increase here - we are talking thousands - and in some cases - millions of dollars per contract.

Do you think its possible that the fans should come first? We pay their salaries by buying tickets, t-shirts, caps and memorabilia. And what do we get? Crapped on.

Part of this leads me to start a whole discussion on why I have an intrinsic hatred of unions. A group of people band together and hold an entire business at bay for very unreasonable demands. Don't get me wrong, back at the early part of this century, unions were effective and proper as they stopped what was essentially slave-like work houses, and horrible and hazardous working conditions in hellish factories. Those issues were more about abuse and madness. Today some groups strike even when the economy is dipping and businesses aren't making the profits. Today's unions specialize in blackmail.

But back to my point here, to strike to get more millions is entirely out of sight, out of mind. And baseball fans everywhere should respond by not supporting the greedy SOBs. Stop buying shirts, tickets, and anything to do with baseball. Since dollars is the only thing that these players care about, then you might as well hit them dead on where it counts - stop filling their coffers.

President Bush, himself a former owner of the Texas Rangers and huge baseball fan, should side with the fans on this one. He should stand up for our national pastime and ask the players to think about the fans for a change. Bush can and should make a difference here. I know he's busy fighting tyrants and global villians, but to let this mess get out of control could dampen his image to the average Joe-six-pack.

Where does it end? Even if they settle out on this strike (the seventh stoppage since the early eighties) do we eventually argue over going to billions of dollars per contract?

Who do you think pays the bills? Well, it's us - the fans. Higher priced tickets and merchandise, ridiculous prices at concession stands -- are you getting the picture? How about the cost of a hotdog increasing to $6 a pop? Bleacher seats at Fenway presently go for over $20 a ticket and could easily move up to $25 or $30. Am I making my point?

There is got to be a point where this vicious cycle ends. One increase leads to another, and the consumer is the one that pays. I'm not usually an advocate of government intervention. But when it comes down to killing our national pastime, I get a little cranky. I blame both the players and the owners. And maybe Congress for giving them any kind of exemption.

You know its funny, I've actually talked to a lot of older folks about this problem. They tell me that in their opinion, the players don't run hard enough, dive or slide often enough, or make the kind of effort that was required even 20 years ago to be considered an average ballplayer.

I have to agree with them. It's clear these guys get more for doing less. It brings to mind players like Jose Offerman, who runs around the bases at half speed or retrieves balls on one hop instead of making the extra effort with a little diving action. But that kind of effort tends to be a rarity during a game in our era, anyway.

Well fans my recommendation is to send a message - if they strike - screw 'em. Let it go. And tell President Bush to allow them to come back only on reasonable terms. And it also doesn't hurt to write your local congressman or senator about how you feel, and drop a line to those companies that sponsor baseball programming.

Make their wallets hurt too.