COMMENTARY : BASEBALL IN-TUNE WITH FANS? WHAT THE SUFFERING SPORT NEEDS IS A FULL-TIME COMMISSIONER.

Byline: Ralph Routon Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph

News item: Marge Schott says Hitler wasn't such a bad guy in his early years of ruling Germany, and the Cincinnati owner admits she still has a swastika armband among her possessions.

News item: American League officials ``investigate'' Cleveland outfielder Albert Belle throwing baseballs at a photographer.

News item: Attendance is down throughout the major leagues, and early-season television ratings are shaky.

News item: Owners and players still can't come close to finalizing a new labor agreement, with union chief Donald Fehr sounding as militant as ever.

You hear those stories, indicating Major League Baseball has a worsening image problem, and some old questions arise.

Why doesn't baseball do something (beyond interleague play) to reverse its decline?

How could the sport go this long, amid so many lingering, festering problems, and still not hire a real commissioner?

What more evidence does baseball's establishment need before realizing the urgent need for sweeping changes?

That evidence has arrived.

In a national magazine called American Demographics, which has no sports-related agenda, an April story reported various trends in baseball attendance and interest. Part of the data included a national survey of kids from ages 12 through 19, compiled by Teenage Research Unlimited of Northbrook, Ill., as part of a broad marketing and lifestyle study last fall.

The question was simple. What pro sports are popular with teens? Or, in kidsspeak, which sports are ``in'' today. Baseball placed fourth among the Big Four. Only 57 percent in that survey thought of baseball as an ``in'' sport. (And the survey was done around the time of baseball's playoffs, which should have been ideal.)

That's far behind basketball and football, in a virtual dead heat at 82-83 percent.

Bad news, to say the least. But not nearly as bad as another piece of information.

Also ranking clearly ahead of baseball in that survey, with a positive response of 63 percent, was hockey.

Yes, you read that right.

Hockey is more popular than baseball among an age group that will become consumers over the next five to 10 years. That wasn't the opinion of young people in Minnesota, Maine or Wisconsin. It was a national cross section and other media are reacting with similar surprise. Or horror.

Nothing against hockey, but when a credible survey tells us American teens like hockey more than baseball, that should set off some big-time alarms.

Instead, we have Schott saying, ``Hitler was good in the beginning, but he went too far.''

And upon hearing that, acting commissioner Bud Selig said, ``There's just no appropriate comment.'' Selig, of course, still is doubling as owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, a clear-cut conflict of interest.

Baseball has to wake up. Hire a real commissioner, somebody who knows the game, somebody who can push new ideas in promotions and marketing, somebody who can help the sport win back its fans, somebody who can bring an end to the labor strife.

Oh yeah, and somebody who will implement severe disciplinary measures when necessary. Like slapping Belle with a fat fine and enforced psychiatric treatment for now, but with the threat of long-term suspension. And barring Schott from all contact with media or fans.

That's just a start. With a dynamic commissioner, baseball can bounce back. Without such a leader, the summer game will fall further behind those other pro sports.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: BELLE