Sunday, April 04, 2004
Baseball on the up, despite crises
Fans are flocking to ballparks. ... Attendance probably will top 73 million, a record. In 1950 average attendance was 14,105 per game -- in 1970, just 15,130. Last year? 28,013.
As Sparky Anderson, a greater manager than grammarian, once said, "We try every way we can do to kill the game, but for some reason nothing nobody does never hurts it."
Hispanic players ... are among the more than 25 percent of major leaguers (and almost 50 percent of all professional baseball players) from outside the United States. This geyser of talent is one reason why ... baseball ... is: soaring ...in spite of the steroid crisis.
In a nation ... where Viagra-enabled men pursue silicone-contoured women ... Steroids threaten the health of the 5 to 7 percent of players proved... to be using them. ... Further, steroids subvert what baseball is selling -- fair competition.
Americans standing in stockings while their shoes and luggage are X-rayed at airports doubt that privacy considerations should prevent random, year-round testing, backed by serious sanctions, for illegal drugs that traduce baseball's integrity
British worry about immigration floodgates
The Blair government's Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said Britain's labour shortages meant more immigrant workers were needed. She rejected the idea of imposing any limit or quota as "old-fashioned central planning".
The comment comes at a time when the Government has been alarmed by a series of opinion polls suggesting a majority of the public did not believe the Government was tough enough on immigration issues.
