Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2005)
Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Friday, April 8, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUD1CK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABEN AYISHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF I’ARKF.R HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH RA1JNGIT AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY EMILY SMITH EVA SYI .WESTER SHELDON TRAVF.R NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILJ.ER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR AMY LICHTY SENIOR PULSE REPORTER JOSHUA IJNTEREUR PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST AII.EE slater COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY ANNEMARIE KNEPPER CHUCK SLOTHOWER JENNIFER MCBRIDE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORTON ZANE Rrn PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANCI.ER GRAPHIC ARTIST DUSITN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER ELLIOTT ASBURY WENDY K1EFFER AMANDA LEE JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY IEANN1E EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKF1ELD PAU1.THOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS GREG BILSLAND AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS JENNY GERW1CK PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR WEBMASTER (541)3465511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER LAUNA DE GIUST1 RECEPTIONIST JERED NAGEL PATRICK SCHMERBER HOLLY STEIN JANA SWANSON ROB WEGNER CAROLYN ZIMMERMAN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUSI ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CALISCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE KELLEE KAUFTHEIL MIA LEIDELMEYER SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541)346-4343 IRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM ANDO KATY GAGNON KERI SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 346-4381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA SLOAN PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAM LET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT SABRINA GOWETTE JONAH SCHROG1N DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. ■ In my opinion Baseball’s fouled soul Now that the pope has died and Terri Schiavo no longer provides Re publicans a convenient case to ex ploit, it’s time to turn to more impor tant things, like baseball. Opening day came on the heels of an excellent NCAA Final Four and featured a dominating performance by New York Yankees ace Randy Johnson, who routed the defending national champion Boston Red Sox. But while the action on the field renews our hope every spring, the soul of the game is hurting. A Congressional hearing in March involving players’ use of steroids marked the greatest collision be tween baseball and government since Curt Flood brought his free agency case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. Former player Jose Canseco admitted to using steroids and narked on teammates he claimed to have injected. Steroids tear at the fabric of the game, which looks to its past more than any other sport. It’s part of the beauty of baseball that one can com pare Albert Pujols’ 2004 season with Mickey Mantle’s 1956 season and determine their relative abilities with a fair degree of accuracy. For baseball purists, the steroid revelations were just the latest in a long line of events that undermine the game. The trouble began in 1973, when the first designated hit ter strode to the plate. The DH foreshadowed the devel opment of one-dimensional players such as the reliever who pitches only to left-handed batters between the seventh and ninth innings during full-moon night games on the West Coast — barely an exaggeration. It also provided jobs for geriatric fan CHUCK SLOTHOWER TAKING ISSUE favorites like Edgar Martinez, who last year could have been out-run by an ambitious riding lawnmower. The DH preceded the reign of Commissioner Bud Selig, who has done all he could to ruin the game since taking over in 1992. His first mistake was expanding into Col orado, where the Rockies can be guaranteed never to win a World Se ries. No pitcher with half a brain wants to risk his career by pitching in a place that, due to its elevation, inflates offense. Selig failed to prevent players from going on strike in 1994, resulting in the cancellation of the World Series for the first time since 1904. Then he had the bright idea in 1997 of insti tuting Interleague Play. Many fans like it — attendance in Interleague games exceeds that of regular games by about 20 percent, according to SI.com — but it results in an unbalanced schedule. It also destroys the uniqueness of the World Series, which used to be the only place American League and National League teams faced each other in games that mattered. Selig has also come up short in addressing the competitive imbal ance in baseball. Despite revenue sharing, which shifts money from the wealthiest teams to the poorest, imbalance persists. The Yankees, blessed by a deep pocketed owner who loves his team, buy their way to the playoffs each year. They paid their players more than $184 million last year, by far the most in baseball, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Meanwhile, small market teams function as a farm system for teams like the Yankees. The Oakland A’s, for instance, have lost a string of their best players in recent years be cause they couldn't afford them. The list includes top-flight sluggers Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada. Just this offseason, the A’s had to let go of two ace pitchers, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder. Until something drastic happens, the Yankees and Red Sox will contin ue to spend their way to the playoffs, while teams like the Kansas City Royals wistfully look on. Part of Selig’s problem is that he cares more about money than the game itself. He looks at baseball from the perspective of a former team owner, which he is. Selig’s other major problem is the players’ union, the most powerful union relative to its industry in the country. The union stands in opposi tion to several important reforms, including the elimination of the designated hitter, a truly tough steroids policy and regulation of am phetamines, which are widely used in baseball. One longs for the days of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball’s first commissioner, who ruled the game with an iron fist and took seriously his charge to act in the best interests of baseball. chackslothower@dailyemerald.com ■ Guest commentary Producing constructive liberalism My parents were not impressed with my attitude following the first term of freshman year. I attacked them for condoning all the problems of the world on which I was now an expert. There were wars I had never heard of, countries I never knew ex isted and animals receiving rights I did not know even I had. I was in shock. The world college presented to me was nothing, I thought, like the world in which my parents had raised me, and I told them so. It took me until last week to real ize that the critical liberalism that saturates this university is not exclu sive to the University of Oregon. An article in The Register-Guard pub lished March 30, “Study backs liber al faculty image,” finally supported the general observation I made that the majority of professors I have had are liberal-minded. The study sur veyed 1,643 college professors at 183 schools and found that 72 percent considered themselves liberal. I attribute the shock of freshman year to my assimilation from a generally moderate environment into a liberal-minded one. The Independent Women’s Forum and the Randolph Foundation, a right leaning support group of Amer icans for Tax Reform, funded this study to show how one-sided a col lege education is in America. But why is it that students like me are so shocked at learning these alternative views? Lack of exposure. I would not argue that the “gov ernment bashing” in my political sci ence courses is unwarranted, but it is an injustice to disseminate pre dominantly liberal views in a gov ernmental institution. As such, I can only assume that the liberalist edu cation serves not to oppose what is known by the general public, but to balance the reality of the future lead ers of this country by revealing that which is not commonly known by or taught to the general public. Liberal professors are laying the other half of a foundation so that students can eventually stand up straight. The Randolph Foundation’s findings should not be misinterpreted. Irra tional extremism is not synonymous with liberalism, for if it were, the American government would not con tinue to support higher education. The freshman student’s impassioned extremism is an understandable effect of the transition into college, and it shows the one-sidedness of what is disseminated to the general public. Thankfully, most students learn to ar ticulate their passions in a way that is more rational and systematically thought out than the attacks made to parents during freshman year. The process begins simply by real izing the futility of reaping all joy of a conversation just to evangelize ideal istic solutions to the world’s prob lems. To be in any way progressive and influential, students will integrate liberal views into a still conservative American government. I just hope my grandfather was wrong when he said that liberals are just college graduates who have not yet made any money. Nicholas Wilbur Lives in Eugene OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for verification. The Emerald reserves the right to edit fa space, grammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald. ■ Out loud “It’s less than a latte.” — EMU Board of Directors member Yoko Silk, discussing Ballot Measure 21 and the $2 price tag per student it would take to pow er the EMU with wind energy. “He was like a person in everyone’s family ... to see a family member pass is about what it’s like to see the pope die.” — Justin Schneider, senior business ad ministration major, mourning the death of Pope John Paul II. “I can’t say I’ve been to a meeting. I don’t know where they’re held; I don’t know much about them.” — ASUO Vice Presidential candidate Chris Haak, at Wednesday’s executive debate, an swering a question about attendance at Pro grams Finance Committee meetings earlier this year. “National identity is being subsumed by national security identity.” — Pacific News Service writer Roberto Lo vato, about post-Sept. 11 paranoia shaping U.S. policy. Lovato spoke at a symposium last week in the Knight Law Center. “I’d be pretty cheesed off if I was told I had to go to Rennie’s to have a cigarette. ” — Graduate teaching fellow Jacque Pol lard, responding to the proposition of a cam pus-wide smoking ban. “The state has been disinvesting year after year after year while the cost of education has gone up at the expense of students.” — ASUO President Adam Petkun, explain ing the need for a state funding increase for higher education. “I started crying before I even came in the door. ” — Senior Lin Charpentier, about her expe rience at “Eyes Wide Open,” a touring Iraq War exhibit that stopped at Lane County on Sunday and Monday. “Overall, the students don’t have much to say in what’s going to happen.” — Freshman Martini Morris, on University plans regarding the purchase of the vacant car lot near the Williams’ bakery site. “When we respond to a party with a beer bong and a person next to it on the couch and they’re passed out, I think they are making a conscious decision at that point to consume large amounts of alcohol.” — Department of Public Safety officer Mike Eppli, during Tuesday's debate with the Of fice of Student Life regarding actions taken to ward students with alcohol poisoning. EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Steven R. Neuman Editor in Chief Managing Editor Ailee Slater Commentary Editor Shadra Beesley Copy Chief Adrienne Nelson Online Editor CORRECTION Wednesday’s article "25 feet” contained misattributed information. Director of Health Education Paula Staight said she would like to see smoking banned on campus and said she does not support the creation of designat ed smoking areas. Staight also said she does not want to see large groups of smokers congregated. These state ments were incorrectly attributed to Director of Environ mental Health and Safety Kay Coots. Coots said she is hopeful changes will be implemented, but did not specif ically site the 25-foot rule change. The Emerald regrets the error.
