European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 05, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday August 5, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 seventh inning stretch now lasts entire game Howard Kleinberg when major league baseball goes on strike millions of americans will be searching for new ways to induce sleep. Sometimes i make it into the sixth inning but not often. Baseball has become the Somines of Amer ican sports. I did t always feel that Way. And pitchers weren always taking 20 seconds betwee Neach pitch either or batters step Pirig out of the Box to take eight or nine warm up swings. As soon As i heard that the baseball players set a strike Date i called my Doc Tor in Hope of his prescribing a Mil sleeping . Without baseball on television i Don t know How i am going to fall  columnist once called baseball an elaborate hoax like Halley s Comet All hype no beef. It survives As soporific for insomniacs and therapy for souls intellectually Over matched by Basket  for years when the Baltimore orioles held Spring training in Miami i would treat my editorial Board once each Grapefruit league season by taking them out to an afternoon exhibition  three innings a Beer and a hot dog we were  was a time when i lived and breathed  that was before the sport went from a two hour thriller to a three hour plus endurance match and before it diluted itself by adding so Many franchises that Guys who could t make it in class a Ball two decades ago can be stars in the major leagues today. Some of baseball s Somines effect has to do with players such As David Justice of the Atlanta braves who aft reach pitch Steps out of the Batter s Box has a Short conversation with whom Harvey the Rabbit takes a few make believe swings and then deigns to resume the game. Snore snore snore there Are other batters such As Lenny Dykstra of the Philadelphia Phillies who in catch it soccer Sist on stepping away to pull the velcro up from their batting gloves after every pitch then replacing it in exactly the same Posi Tion. And there Are the pitchers who stare interminably at their squatting catchers who Flash myriad Covert signal from Between their legs.  or eyesight when i watch a baseball game in person i can go Back to the Concession stand be tween innings buy a drink and some pop Corn go to the men s room and get Back to my seat before the next Batter Steps in. Each year former Boss Jim Fain would write a column humiliating baseball and each year i resented it. But the More he wrote it and the Morei watched baseball the More i came around to his Way of thinking. 7 he called baseball a splendid antidote to High blood pressure. And when the players went on strike in 1985, but for just two Days Fain asked whether a somnolent sluggish physical torpor like baseball was on strike or a Coffee break. Lately with a National hockey league franchise now in he Semi topics i have been seeing a lot of that sport and a convinced that there is More action in two minutes of hockey than there is in two baseball games my concern Al pen t match that of some other fans who worry that a Lon strike will hamper record chasing performances from players who Are hiking baseballs out of the Park in astonishing numbers these Long nights. My concern is sleep. How do i get to sleep with no baseball on the tube i think i have the answer i am off to England in Hope that a Cricket match will be on the Telly there. Cricket matches sometimes last  there is going to be something that will replace baseball Over the next few weeks i think it will be Cricket Zzz Zzz _ _ _ _ t Howard Klo Enber a former editor of Tho Miami news is a columnist for Cox mews service it was just an oversight was t it or. Fiske shut up hollered rep. Maxine Waters d-calif., at a Republican who dared ask embarrassing questions about White House intrusion into a criminal  her Demeanour in thus obstructing congressional oversight Waters speaking rights were sus Pended for All of 30 seconds by the  dismaying spectacle of House democrats trying to protect Clinton administration wrongdoers fro Public exposure was further heightened by the Cho rus line 10 White House allies All in a Tow piously Cho Rusing no to a Democrat asking if they were All villains. Democrats last week demonstrated they cannot investigate  ""7 l if voters needed a reason to unseat the cover up Congress the performance of Henry Gonzalez strained seals provided that reason. Before our eyes is a pattern of 20 improper contacts Between supposed Law enforcement officials at Treasury and presidential advisers eager to avoid a serious investigation of their Boss if that is not an egregious breaches ethics then nothing is  Treasury Deputy Secretary Roger Altman a Clin ton crony did not deceive Congress with his original untruthful testimony about Only one Contact then nothing is misleading. Consider one tiny facet of the Whitewater cover up found in the damning diary of Joshua Steiner Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen s chief of staff forced into the Public record despite the democrats anti oversight Deal with no Independent counsel. Altman was supervising the Agency asking a reluctant Linton appointed prosecutor to look into the Sleazy _ so Deal benefiting the  after a new York times editorialist telephoned Alt Man _ who had been surreptitiously helping Clinton Public and personal lawyers anticipate moves of the regulators decided to recuse himself because his conflict of interest was becoming All too obvious. As Altman fearing exposure of his Back Channel bailed out of the hot seat George Steph Nopoulos demanded to know Why an Anli Clinton prosecutor had been chosen to  the time i saw nothing wrong in George blowing of steam As he put it about the Independent Agency s appoint ment of a partisan prosecutor. Perfectly natural in counsel Lloyd Cutler s words. Besides i like and respect Heyoung Man and have nothing but scorn for popinjays Jay Stephens who As . Attorney stooped to using a de meaning sex lure  the mayor of Washington but now i read the text of the Steiner diary  then suggested to me that we needed to find a Way to get rid of him. Persuaded George that firing him Stephens would be incredibly stupid and  that has the ring of truth to in -. -. Find a Way to get rid of him coming from the Man whose West Wing office adjoins the presidents is not As the laughable ethicist of the Clinton administration Euph Emited it sunday merely expressing con  a Republican White House aide said that about an William Safire unfriendly prosecutor the remark would have been interpreted by Many As an attempt to impede an investigation and might have triggered an editorial firestorm congressional outrage indictment conviction and a jail term followed by a lucrative cd rom Memoir radio talk show and senatorial nomination. Perhaps Steiner went before a grand jury to disavow what he wrote. He would not confirm or disavow it in talking to me sunday Over to you Republican senators. " George accessible and forthright As always tells Mej i do not remember saying  evidently Robert Fiske the Clinton appointed investigator chose to disbelieve or ignore the Steiner diary entry or was inclined to impute an innocent intent tothe improper imperative. He cheerfully sees no evil in the Vincent poster Cash Noj Jullet or Skull frag in cats were found but Fiske is certain that death took place at that spot the eyewitness who discovered the body saw two hands Palms up with no gun and now insists he was badgered 25 times into allowing the possibility that he May have been mistaken. What s with this no Independent counsel who helps democrats avoid oversight Way Roget rid of him. V c new York time. _ the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government