European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 1, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday october 1, 1987 columns James Kilpatrick arms control agreement won t change soviets yes  month s a in principle Between the United Stales and the soviet Union fairly May be de scribed As a breakthrough. Given the in Fla line that affects language no less than economics one might even Call the agreement historic. Toul at the risk of raining on a pretty Parade let me suggest thai we hold Lite euphoria. Nothing much has changed. The tentative agreement is to eliminate medium Ana Short Range nuclear weapons Over a period of three 1o five year. I say  because a formal protocol remains 10 be drafted. Between the principle and inc Fine print Pitfalls May yet develop. The truly hard bargain ing lies ahead in the midst of he jubilation Over what inc agreement May accomplish Lei us keep a Cool Eye on what the agreement will not accomplish the proposal will not affect strategic nuclear arms it will no affect conventional forces it will not affect Basic communist coals of world domination if All goes Well the Elimina Tion of these weapons Wilt rid the world of no More than 3 percent or 4 percent of he nuclear Arsenal. This past March the department of defense Dod released its annual appraisal of soviet military Power. Consider some sobering figures. Between 1977 and 1986 the soviet Union built 3,000 Long Range nuclear missiles. In this same period the United tales built 850. The soviet Union has developed a giant missile called the ss-25 it is  the soviets also Are developing an ss-x-24 it will be  the Dod reports that the soviet Union now has about 10,000 deployed intercontinental strategic nuclear weapons missile warheads and bombs and by 1990 is Likely to have about 12,000." Over the 10-year period the soviet Union assembled 140,000 surface to air missiles. The United Stales assembled 16,200. The soviet Union has engaged in a tremendous buildup of tactical nuclear George will it $ weapons including artillery with nuclear capability. While inc United slates was build ing 7.100 tanks the soviet Union was turning out 24,000 tanks. The soviet army numbers 211 divisions 40 per cent of them in a relatively High slate of combat readiness. The soviets have developed " he most extensive chemical warfare capability in the  Between 1977 and 1986 the . Launched 90 submarines inc . Commissioned 43. The soviets newest sub Marine known As he Della la carries 16 Long Range missiles each of hem armed with to warheads. The ild s estimates of soviet air Power arc is Omi Nous. In sum tic soviet Union hut devel oped and continues to develop armed forces far in excess of inc arms that might reasonably he justified in Ihen ame of National defense the question that Seldom is asked because ii seems so beastly rude to ask in. Is Why the president and his advisers arc so eager for formal treaties with the soviet Union the soviets record of compliance with International agreements is not exactly shining. Why do we Deal with Icse people a Krasnoyarsk the solicit have nearly completed a huge new radar facility. O sensibly its purpose is to track satellites actually its purpose a to track incoming missiles. Congress and the Dod repeat edly have charged that the Structure Vio lates the 1972 treaty on anti ballistic mis Silas. Under the abm treaty permissible radar units must be located close Lona tonal Borders inc giant Krasnoyarsk Sta Tion is 750 Kilometres from the nearest soviet Border in Mongolia. It is possible of course that the great changes mentioned by stale Secretary George Sulu arc real thai last month agreement will Lead to More significant agreements thai a new Era of peace has begun. Let us Pray but ice us not bet the ranch. Ump Firul pro nil owners could take a lesson from baseball pro football is shul Down which in should be until baseball reaches its october apogee. Football owners with Lime on their hands should note that the National pastime has vindicated the National premise Freedom works. Football s controversy concerns free Agency Ilic right of players to sell their services in a free Market when their contracts expire. Football players want that right team owners object. Baseball players won that right on Christmas eve 1975, and now have won an arbitrator s ruling that owners recently colluded to negate that right. In 1985. After years of fevered spending for free agents the owners bidding came to a screeching Stop. Essentially this happened 26 economic entities suddenly and simultaneously altered their behaviour radically and in he same Way. Collusion you say my you arc a suspicious one. The wonder is How could 26 owners have expected to gel away with it perhaps they did not expect to. Don Fehr head of the players association thinks inc owners May have wanted to change the dynamic of baseball bargaining and expected that any Penally would approximate what they would have paid in Ris ing salaries. But he says owners Are in a bind As i987 s free agents an especially Luminous group Mike Schmidt. Jack Morns cat Ripken among others come on the Market. If in the Wake of the arbitrator s ruling the owner resume competitive bidding that changed behaviour will validate the ruling. But if in the face of the ruling they continue the behaviour that earned the ruling he will make themselves vulnerable to severe penalties. Free Agency is an idea attuned to the contemporary ethos of expanded individual Choice. And football owners should learn from baseball that free Agency is not something that need be feared. With free Agency owners have nothing to fear but themselves. Baseball owners had two fears about it. They thought they might go maj and bid up salaries irrationally. And they thought free Agency might result in the unshakable dominance of teams in the biggest markets High attendance and broadcasting revenues would enable los Angeles and new York teams to skim the Cream off every Batch of free agents and those teams would monopolize division championships. Some owners did go mad and their excesses pulled up an salaries partly because of arbitration to that procedure an eligible player demands a his learn of fers a and the arbitrator can not split the difference. He must pick one sum or the other. Many owners Are not in baseball because they believe in is the most efficient Way to increase their wealth. Rather they Are motivated by other factors competitiveness the Quesi for Fame fascination with the game. Having non economic motives they arc no slaves of economic rationality. They often convinced themselves thai one More free agent would put their teams in the playoffs thereby paying for thai player and much else. Average salaries Rose steadily and spectacularly from s31,000 in 1976 to si43,756 in 1980 to $412,520 in 19b6, then slipped this year to approximately $395,000. But the owners National television revenues there also Are other broadcasting revenues will Row from just under $25 million a year 1976-79 to an aver age of 1180 million a year Between 1984 and 1989, peaking in 1989 at More than 1230 million. Furthermore competitive balance far from disappearing is better than Ever and has produced Atten dance records. The St. Louis cardinals serving one of baseball s smallest markets Are about o become with the new York mels the second and third teams to draw More than three million in a season. The los Angeles dodgers have done thai often from 1977, the first season fully affected by free Agency through 1987,2 j of the 26 teams including san Francisco and Minnesota this year have won divisional lilies a higher rate of turnover among win ners than before free Agency. Since the 1977 Ana 1978 Yankees won consecutive world series no learn has won even iwo consecutive division titles not counting the idiotic split season caused by the 1981 strike. One of baseball s buccaneers Ted Turner of he Atlanta Bravo has thrown Money at his team s problems and what has he bought in 10 seasons 1977-86the braves have won one divisional title. In heir nine other seasons they finished a cumulative 180 games out of first a dismal average of 20 games i year. Free Agency like Freedom generally gives ample scope for Folly. And free Agency has proved Hal Money without Wisdom is not much of a weapon. The pal Cracy baseball writer Tom Boswell s word Hal used to run baseball was forced by free Agency to make room for entrepreneurial skills. Expanded Freedom has rewarded and hence has elicited intelligent behaviour. Football Conen can icam to live with that. W., poll or