Happy Days Are Here Again

BASEBALL'S SHORTEST STRIKE is finally over. And not a moment too soon.

For while the major league's players and owners were arguing about who could be the greediest group of people in America's favorite sport, it was the poor fans who were paying the price.

True fans had to pass up on a whole 27 games while the players and owners were acting like infants. Sure, that's not many, considering that an entire baseball season contains 2116 games. But for those of us who have 19 different cable networks so that we can be sure not to miss an inning of any team's game, it's still a substantial amount.

Beyond the 81 hours of enjoyment that diehard fans were deprived, there was also the fumbling for information to fill air time.

Poor Warner Wolf. What could he say for two whole days instead of "let's go to the videotape?" Sure, he could report about the strike talks--and bargaining sessions, instead of baseball scores, but there's no opportunity there to scream out, "swish," "bang," "ouch," and "gimme a break," a she is prone to do when there are real sports going on.

And what about TV-38, the local station that carries Red Sox games. They were faced with the prospect of presenting a half a summer of The Movie Loft, featuring every lousy Bob Hope movie ever made. Thank God that the players and owners had the good sense to avert such a situation.

Moreover, the end of the strike settles a potentially sticky mess caused by extremely intelligent fans in Saugus, Mass. These diplomats of America's pastime decided that they would take strike matters into their own hands and overturn neighborhood subcompact cars for as long as the strike went on. They got to four cars on the first night of the strike and vowed nine more each night--one for each missed inning--until baseball returned to Fenway Park.

One can only wonder what they might have done if Coke changed its forumla again.

Of even greater benefit to fans is the fact that their local newspapers will no longer have to fill their sports pages with minor league results and local golf tournament news.

MOST OF ALL, though, the end of the strike means that we will not have to search long and far to find alternatives to baseball. Though I will certainly miss all the evenings I could have spent sitting around the cracker barrel talking about baseball instead of going to see the games, I am glad that I will not have to rely on a Rambo Film Festival at the Copley Place for my summertime entertainment.

But perhaps the greatest thing about the end of the strike is that all the fabulous seasons will not be lost. So Dwight Gooden can keep his winning streak going, Don Mattingly can drive in 150 runs, Vince Coleman can steal 100 bases as a rookie, and Wade Boggs can get 250 hits.

More importantly though, Jim Rice can still break his own single-season record for grounding into double plays. And therefore, Boston's best comedy show will continue for the rest of the season.