Re: Homework: Lesson #1. Fans after strike.

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

I think this is an incorrect assumption.  Baseball and basketball are 
different in so many ways.  Baseball is the national passtime, the game 
of your childhood.  People are not connected to basketball in the same 
emotional way. If the Finals were cancelled, that would not have 
anywhere near the devastating effect on the game as losing the World 
Series did.  There is no way that basketball can alienate as many people 
in the same way as baseball did, because the average person cares less 
about it.  Baseball is one of the handful of things that defines 
America.  It is forever linked to our national identity and the 
mistreatment of the game by its owners and players was a mistreatment of 
America.

That is not to say that baseball is a better game, or even that people 
like it better.  For a long time people have been getting sick of long, 
slow, boring baseball games.  A 162 game season is too much with today's 
busy lives.  But that doesn't matter.  It's like when a president is 
shot.  It doesn't matter whether you voted for him, or even if you liked 
him, it's a shock.

One final difference is that in baseball you have a powerful players 
union that dominates a spineless governing body.  People end up 
resenting both sides.  In the NBA both sides seem to be strong and it's 
more of a fair fight.

With basketball you will not need the kind of drama going on in baseball 
this year.  The action of the game itself is exciting enough to hold a 
sports fan's interest.  There is already a backlash against the slowdown 
85 point games of Miami and New York.  We're very lucky that our team is 
one of the most exciting teams to watch.  Let's face it, if you didn't 
still enjoy watching basketball, you wouldn't be reading and 
contributing to this list.  

Jim

>From: "ramani_rite"@lnmta.bentley.edu
>To: celtics@igtc.com
>Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 12:46:49 -0400
>Subject: Homework: Lesson #1. Fans after strike.
>
>Now for your homework, assuming fans will not return, develop a "story" 
ending with a great drama similar to the Homerun chase to
> bring back the NBA fans into the circle.
 


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