European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday september 24, 1994 sports the stars and stripes Page 37 Tony Kornheiser Wake me when they get to Willie Mays. After watching five full hours of baseball and they still had t gotten past 1910 i began to wonder if i would even live through the ending. Can you be Lieve it baseball the documentary 12 25 . Get today on an to is As slow As the game it documents. I m told it picks up after the first eight hours. But so did the Hundred years War and i would t have stuck around Tosee that either. What can you say about baseball that it is Lush it is Loving and Hoo boy is it Long. Far be it from me to suggest that Ken Burns has Woven a corporate funding version of the emperor s new clothes but playing ins National an them before each episode Pardon me each  pretentious pretentious Moi of and Ken get a grown up haircut. Knowing How crucial baseball is to the care an feeding of the nation s leading poets and intellectuals i did t want to sell it Short just because it seemed Tome that it was basically an overblown chunk of baloney. So i telephoned savvy Media critic Man about township Muldoon and asked if he had seen any of base   -. I watched the first 10 minutes he said. Of that s the part that concentrates on the Spring of 1837," i , i figured i had a Long wait until Chico escue la v  let s get real. This thing is 181/ hours of slurping atthe trough of baseball. If it was any More reverential St. Peter would be doing the narration not John Chan cellar. It opens in Brooklyn with Church Bells ringing baseball being the Church of America get it til bet it s set in Brooklyn because everyone of a certain generation the corporate funding generation -. Be moans How Brooklyn does t have a baseball team any More then again you could have started this in Pakistan because there s no baseball team there either. The first words you hear Are in our Sundown per ambulation of  and immediately you get that queasy feeling of gosh am i Gonna see George will soon. Right you Are. You get will the unbearable George Plimpton Shelby Oppte who s become to Ken Burns what Tony Roberts is to Woody Allen and a Parade of Middle aged White males telling you As Bob Costas does what you be got to understand is baseball is a Beautiful thing or As the poet Donald Hall does there s a stillness in baseball that i  you Hearthe words pastoral timeless and renewal and you get the feeling of the elegiac symmetry of the Emer Ald chessboard and it makes you Wanna throw up both your hands and holler hark and hot Damn i hear the rhythms of America of course just once i d like to see Burns let someone anyone say i hate to say this but sometimes baseball can be us  like when it lasts 18vi hours. Let s see the civil War lasted 12 hours and this goes 18. I can t wait for Burns next big score 25 hours on household pets you give me the natural Field of dreams and Bull Durham and you can take your but hours and stick them in a museum. Look i like baseball. Like All the other old White men in the show it s the game of my youth and the game of my father but no matter How Many quotes from Walt Whitman you dredge up because hey who d Walt Whitman play for i won t think it s poetry and i wont think it s religion and i won t think it explains the history of America. Not any More than the Cotton inf or the Sunset off Monterey Bay or a Cor Vette on an open Highway. I be been to a lot of baseball games and i never had a sense that players sat on the Bench and mused about Avaio it s a Long time Between "1st inning and Willie Mays. How baseball holds up a Mirror to America s soul. And seriously if i have to hear the haunting strains of Danny boy or take me out to the ballgame in the background one More night i think i May hurl. Enough with the sound of the crack of the Bat. Enough with the phony crowd noise. Enough with the 1870s sometimes when i m watching i feel like going out for a Sandwich like to Argentina. Because i know that when i get Home it la still Only be the sixth inning. Kenny sweetheart docs the word Cut mean any things you three full Days and we weren t even into moving Pic Tures. ". I am Happy to report that baseball continues through thursday and into the next Century on pcs. If by some twist of Fate you miss any of it be assured you can buy the entire boxed set of tapes for a Mere $179.95. What a steal and i la bet they throw in a Lyric Sheet for take me out to the  of course you could simply buy three Blank six hour tapes and do it yourself for nine Bucks and with the $170 left Over buy two football tickets. A a  players strike ends a Ken by Ronald Blum Washington a amending the antitrust Law would end the baseball strike players have promised angry con Gressmen seeking to prevent the walkout from extending into next season. Union head Donald Fehr told a House subcommittee thursday that the walkout would end if lawmakers enact legislation that would allow players to sue owners and let a court decide if a salary Cap is an illegal restraint of Trade. If the Bill is passed it will bring base Ball Back testified los Angeles Pitcher Orel Hershiser wearing a double breasted Navy suit instead of dodger Blue. The players will return to the Field. It s a Promise Fehr said there was an outside Chance the world series could still be played this year if Congress acted quickly on the antitrust Bill and president Clinton signs it. Clinton said last week that baseball s antitrust exemption must be reexamined although he did t commit himself to a position. I Don t like this room i want to be on the dirt said Cecil fielder of the de troit tigers among the eight players at tending the hearing. Acting commissioner Bud Selig de fended the owners antitrust exemption created by a 1922 . Supreme court decision that was reaffirmed in 1953 and 1972. The Senate judiciary committee voted 10-7 on june 23 against a Blanket repeal of the exemption but the Bill Dis cussed thursday would Amend the Law in two ways players could sue owners if the team impose unilateral work rules such As a salary Cap. Unilateral work rules would t take effect until lawsuits were decided and appeals were exhausted. I m optimistic we will reach an agreement with the Union in 1994," Selig said. He said fighting the players in court was t preferable to the strike baseball eighth work stoppage since 1972. That s like asking whether you want to have a problem with your pancreas or a problem with your liver he said after the hearing. The sides have met just three times since the strike began aug. 12 and not at All since Selig announced sept. 14 that there would t be a world series for the first time since 1904. Owners Are insisting in a salary Cap and players say they never will accept one unlike or. Selig i am not even re Motely optimistic there will be an agreement in the Short term Fehr said. Spring training is in imminent peril the Bill introduced by rep. Mike Synar an Oklahoma Democrat faces several problems including Congress de sire to adjourn by oct. 8. Similar legis lation was blocked in the Senate i really think both sides have acted like spoiled children arguing Over a Bil lion Dollar Honey pot said Synar who introduced the Bill along with rep. Jim Bunning a Kentucky Republican. Players Hove fences to mend. Bench says a file Johnny Bench Terre haute ind. A the players will have a bigger Burden than owners in luring fans Back to baseball when play resumes Hall of Fame Catcher Johnny Bench predicted on wednesday. Bench who will be the speaker at the annual Indiana state University baseball fundraising dinner oct. 1, said it will take a very serious Public relations move by the players to Avert any Lon term effects from the strike. The players Are the ones who Are going to have to sell it Bench said. I Don t care what happens How much the owners can put out and what they have to do it s going to be the players that have to make a  in order to bring Back the fan. There can t be any bickering or fighting or anything else be cause the fans Don t want to hear it. They want to just forget about it Bench said. It s just unfathomable that it can be a situation where there would t be a world  Bench said fans perception of the sport May change most be cause of the cancellation of the series. I think that s the biggest Dis appointment. The More i think about it the closer it gets to world series time and playoff time the More upset we All get. That will be the Only residual fallout that i think Well see in the upcoming months ahead he said. As you get into Spring train ing i m not sure that you re not going to go through Spring train ing and around March 1, All of a sudden have something Start to move and some Ruso vement of this strike and of the  Bench said he thinks the play ers will remain United although when it comes time for Spring training and the new season to Start and those Guys that Are making $1 million a month that lost $1.5 million to $2 million Are going to say wait a minute Guys i be done my duty. I need to play ". The sides Haven t met since sept. 9, and no talks Are scheduled. The Union believes owners will attempt to declare an impasse in bargaining and unilaterally implement a salary Cap i look at basketball and i look at football and the really Good players Are being paid Bench said of a salary Cap. So i mean in t that the Way society should be if you play and you re really a Good player you earn the Money. If you re not Why should something just be Given to you