European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page to columns the stars and stripes monday August 3,19b7 James Kilpatrick explaining the game of baseball to its inventors i see by the papers at will Roger used id say thai the soviet Union a taken up the great game or baseball. Bill Keller of the new York time reporting from Moscow says the russians not Only Are playing baseball they also Are claiming they invented baseball. Fifteen teams Nave been organized. A baseball commissar ale under Kalivods has been named. Before Long it ii alleged the Tashkent subway builders May be ready for International play. Somehow it All seems a Little unlikely. Unreliable sources Tell me thai Earl Weaver onetime Boss of the Baltimore orioles this summer took on a consult ing Job for the Tallinn tractors. Report edly he found the going Tough. At the tint team meeting Weaver at tempted to discus balls and strikes with his prospective players. If a hitter got four balls he explained the hitter was entitled to take a walk. Neil cried Mikhail Mikhailovich a candidate for shortstop. In the soviet Union ii no balls. Is trappings . Here in workers Paradise we Folk dance Only or sometime is Ballet. We make it four ballets Hokay Weaver undertook to define the strike zone. Weaver hat been undertaking to define the strike zone for american umpires for 50 years without notable Success. He fared no better in Estonia. Strikes cried Andrei Andrei Ovnich a potential outfielder. In soviet Union we have no strikes. In this land of free Dom no one free to strike. Even one strike and you re Oul Way out three strikes you talk impossible  Weaver was not discouraged. Suppose he supposed we gel a Man on first base. His pupils seemed to grasp the idea. An suppose Weaver further supposed the opposing Catcher has a weak Arm and the right handed Pitcher has a slow Windup. Dada he had heir attention. Now said Weaver we Send the runner. He is going to steal second base this proposition aroused yelps of in credulity. Oregon Gregorovitch who both pitches and catches sometime m the same inning complained that such a permissive Rule would be quite income Tom Wicker  baseball � As uht Ltd a top diversion in Mso invented to de96nktep hitter Rule. No tour "bein6 shot. Too Java cum of tuls Dwe have Anth Mek Burse est vre the Ryks serf Png Loeuk or a to gulags Paible with the Law abiding lifestyle of the soviet Union. Here we have no stealing said Gregorovitch. In communist state everybody own everything in common. You steal abase you steal your own base Weaver said it is impossible for a runner to steal his own base. The runner already has that base. Why then he want to steal another base murmurs of agreement and applause greeted the question. One base Hokay for everybody that the soviet  Weaver had a feeling his Chalk talk was not going at All Well. He therefore took his recruits to the team s Diamond where he was astonished to see that there was no Pitcher s Mound. It had been levelled into non existence he was told because in soviet Union All Peoples play on level playing Field. Pitcher no belter than anyone else. The same spirit of egalitarianism affected the lineups. Weaver named a first baseman second baseman and third base Man just to gel a game under Way but his charges would have none of it. In classless soviet Union everybody is first class Citi zen Only. As a result each of the practice teams had two first basemen one at the familiar spot and another Down the left Field line. The other two infielders were designated the left shortstop and the right shortstop though not without some Grum bling to the effect that in soviet Union nobody is right everybody left " the game at last began but it swiftly got beyond Weaver s control. This was because a hitter had his Choice of run Ning alternatively to first or to third an base runners could go either Way. Ii was the first time Weaver Ever had seen a run Ner sliding Home from first. In was a sight he Hopes never to Sec  innings. Weaver inquired about the soviets claim thai they invented the game. He was lot that the first rus Sian settlers in America had brought the sport of Lepta Wilh them to the new world. In Lepta. A fielder tries to hit a runner Wilh the Ball. That was More than Weaver really wanted to know about Lepta. Following the practice game an inter viewer from Izvestia asked Weaver if he saw any real latent. Weaver pointed to Ilyitch la Mitchovitch Center fielder if he could Field and throw he said the kid might make it if he could  the soviets expect to Field a learn in the Barcelona olympics of 1992. Earl Weaver won t be there. Satellites offer new forum for political debates television networks Lake note. League of women voters Brace yourself. National political committees forget it. Bill Buckley eat your heart out. None of you is needed if the 1988 presidential Candi dates decide to stage their debates without you and they re doing it already. On july 20, rep. Jack Kemp the new York Republican and rep. Richard Gephardt the Missouri dem Oral met on the stage of the Oln Lead student Center at Drake University in Iowa the state where party caucuses in february will first test the candidates. With no solemn sponsors setting ponderous ground rules and Only a faculty member acting As Moderator no reporters or political big feel intervening the iwo candidates went at Ench other for an hour o the presumed edification of a lot of americans watching on local Stalions. Each candidate gave three minute answers to the Moderator s questions and each bad two minutes to rebut the other s answers. This was something like real debate More important however was the Means by which Home viewers were reached. The Gephardt and Kemp campaigns had split the $11,000 Cost of renting time on a communications satellite. More than 1,000 local television stations were notified that if they wanted to broadcast the debate All they had to do was take the signal from the satellite. Eucly How Many stations took advantage of the offer ii not known because they did not have to notify anyone if they were broadcasting the debate All they had to do was tune in. Quite a few did. After the debate hour Kemp did Gephardt remained on stage for 90 minutes. Any local station was free to have its Anchorman or woman conduct a join interview with the two candidates via the satellite for later rebroadcast. Station from Boston and Manchester . Both covering the state where candidate will face their Sec Ond test took advantage of the Opportunity so did stations from Buffalo Kemp s Home City St. Louis Gephardt s and other cities. A special feed to Washington enabled More than 30 National reporters to cover the debate from there. The two Are planning another satellite debate probably on aug. 27 from new Hampshire although details remain to be worked out. Gephardt and gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts another democratic candidate having attacked each other on Trade is sues also will wage a satellite debate on aug. 8. In that Case Boston stations will pay for the satellite time and other local stations picking up the signal will share the Cost. No Moderator Al All except a timekeeper will stand Between the combatants n 1984, both the Reagan Bush and the Mondale Ferraro campaigns made spokesmen available to local stations via live feeds from a studio. Now however stations everywhere Are using dishes to pick up signals directly from satellites making expensive live feeds unnecessary and enabling broadcasts to originate from places like Drake University without Benefit of net work political party or league of women voters sponsorship. Satellite debates also bypass the Eye glazing Call shows that such sponsors inevitably produce. The league for example can hardly sponsor a debate for Only two of the seven announced democratic Candi dates it s All or none. Even Buckley had no Choice but to feature All Tevon Lut month when he i cautiously ventured Forth As a debate impresario. The result As he might put it was nyut Tropic. Since Kemp and Gephardt jointly engaged their own camera Crew they could set their own ground rules a simple modified Oxford format other sponsor fearful of being charged with Bias have sought to control camera angles reaction shot and the like and insisted on having reporters As intermediaries Between the debaters. In one on one debate rather than cattle shows and with few holds barred some of the sheep might even be separated from the goats be fore Iowa and new Hampshire voters do the separating. Will the ultimate party nominees next year dare to go it alone in satellite debates Why ool will he league and the National party commit Tibet bickering Over who will sponsor presidential debates and with the networks culling Back new operations and Cosu the nominees might jus decide to skip All that split the Cost of satellite Lime and Tel local stations do the rest. N � Vox to Pei a that