Costas the fan, has the plan, but what happens next?

When someone, in this case a relative outsider, is able to offer clear and concise solutions to a problem, it’s a wonder the light bulb hasn’t gone on for the people at the heart of the problem. But then again, when the people helping create and perpetuate the problem are making millions and millions of dollars annually, why wouldn’t they bury their heads in the sand.

Major league baseball has big problems. I know it. You know it. George Steinbrenner knows it. David Glass knows it. So does the guy climbing up and down the upper deck aisles selling cotton candy at Kauffman Stadium.

Along comes award-winning broadcaster and sports commentator Bob Costas (actually he’s been saying these things for a long time) with a new book, entitled “Fair Ball, A Fan’s Case for Baseball”, that offers plausible solutions to the snowballing conditions that are slowly killing “America’s pastime.” Along the way he gives his thoughts about interleague play, the designated hitter and baseball’s wild-card system.

The book, a tight 179 pages, is unbelievably thorough and well- constructed. It takes us back to the pre-strike days of 1993 and reviews of the state of the game as it was then and details what could have happened, but didn’t, to prevent the strike of 1994. He systematically describes how baseball’s problems – if you haven’t figured it out yet I’m talking about madly escalating player salaries and the widening talent and revenue gulf separating large and small market teams – have deepened.

Baseball purist. Pro-owner. Pro-player. Costas is none of these. What he is, is a fan. “This isn’t a fan’s diatribe against the sport,” Costas states, “but rather, a fan’s case for baseball. What do I want? I think the same thing most baseball fans want: to see the game prove worthy of our devotion. To watch it move forward into the next century, while retaining the essence of what made it so worthwhile in the last one.”

Costas readily admits that most of his ideas aren’t new, but they are presented in an orderly, logical manner that immediately grabs the reader and makes him (or her) take notice. Costas offers means and reasons why baseball owners, even large market barons, should embrace revenue sharing. His reasoning behind a team/player salary cap is so sound that athletes now making $15 million annually should be able to understand why they could make do with less for the good of their teammates and the game itself. Heck, Costas isn’t even making money off the sale of this book. All the net proceeds go to B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team), which provides financial support to “those members of the baseball family in need.”

For anyone who likes baseball, I can’t recommend this book too highly. Players and owners are due to haggle over another contract after the 2001 season. It’s not too early to give some of these ideas a close look. Baseball is too great a game to be trashed by today’s eye-on-the-dollar participants.

Even the blindest of the blind can see that there are some hard decisions that have to be made within the next year. Will Costas’s suggestions be taken seriously by the millionaire group that includes the commissioner, baseball owners and members of the player’s association? Maybe. Maybe not. After all, Costas is one of US, not one of them. Come on (commissioner) Bud Selig and (head of player’s union) Don Fehr, get down off your high seats and get something done!