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LOCKOUT: ONLY DRIBBLE OF FAN RESENTMENT : LOSS OF BASEBALL GAMES IN 1994 HAD BIGGER IMPACT.


Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Headline over Daily News letters to the editor after cancellation of baseball games due to 1994 players' strike:

``America's pastime has jilted jilt  
tr.v. jilt·ed, jilt·ing, jilts
To deceive or drop (a lover) suddenly or callously.

n.
One who discards a lover.
 the fans''

Headline over Daily News letters to the editor after cancellation of basketball games due to 1998 lockout lockout, intentional closing up of a company, factory, or shop by an employer to prevent employees from working during a strike or labor dispute. The term lockout :

``Fans question Hackett''

Stubborn greed cost Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation).
Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball.
 a big chunk of a season, and fans were up in arms armed for war; in a state of hostility.

See also: Arms
.

Stubborn greed costs the NBA NBA
abbr.
1. National Basketball Association

2. National Boxing Association

NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (=
 a big chunk of a season, and fans are up in arms about the USC football coach.

If you're an NBA executive these days, that is the most worrisome thing about the owners' lockout that has caused the first two weeks of the season to be called off.

So few of us seem to care.

Public anger is one thing. Public apathy is worse.

In retrospect, Major League Baseball was lucky, because the fans' revolt at least indicated they'd lost something near and dear to their hearts. They weren't going to stay angry for long, and as the feel-good summer of '98 indicated, they haven't.

Now the NBA is finding out where it stands, which is on shakier ground than it might have realized during the two decades in which it rose from an art-house secret to a billion-dollar blockbuster.

Think about it.

When baseball went on strike, the reaction was, ``They've stolen summer from us!'' When basketball is locked out, the reaction is, ``It's football season anyway.''

When baseball went out, it was, ``We weep for fathers and sons and lost days in the sun!'' With basketball, it's, ``This is really going to cut into sneaker sales.''

When baseball went out, it was, ``It's an insult to Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, to Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken Jr., to history and the integrity of the record book!'' With basketball, it's, ``Our lawyers used to be so much sharper than this.''

The contrast can be explained in a couple of ways. Here's the one that should have the NBA feeling humbled, chastened chas·ten  
tr.v. chas·tened, chas·ten·ing, chas·tens
1. To correct by punishment or reproof; take to task.

2. To restrain; subdue: chasten a proud spirit.

3.
 and concerned at the end of a decade in which it earned the designation as the best-run U.S. sports league:

Despite all its clever lawyering, merchandising and cablecasting, the NBA has failed to weave itself into the very fabric of American life as Major League Baseball and the NFL NFL
abbr.
National Football League

NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga
 have.

The explanation might be as simple as the fact that baseball is the summer. The NBA shares its season with hockey and football; a jilted pro basketball fan finds other fish in the sea.

Or it might be that a league that was on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955.  of collapse before Magic Johnson and Larry Bird came along needs more than 20 years and a slick highlight reel to secure a permanent place in the American sporting soul.

An NBA diehard might argue that fans have reacted less emotionally to this interruption in play not because of the NBA's shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw.

Shortcomings may also be:
  • Shortcomings (SATC episode), an episode of the television series Sex and the City
 but because we've gotten used to strikes and lockouts and simply aren't as outraged by them.

But we were used to strikes and lockouts by 1994, that being the fourth baseball lockout or strike since 1972 (and the seventh if you include umpires' strikes). Every baseball strike has inspired a national hand-wringing.

An NBA apologist Apologist

Any of the Christian writers, primarily in the 2nd century, who attempted to provide a defense of Christianity against Greco-Roman culture. Many of their writings were addressed to Roman emperors and were submitted to government secretaries in order to defend
 could point out there's a difference between canceling the end of the baseball regular season and the World Series and canceling the start of the pro basketball season. Of course the loss of a World Series was a bigger deal.

But that only serves to remind us how insignificant the NBA regular season feels.

A six-month season that lets 16 of 29 teams into the playoffs isn't a competition, it's a commercial. Since the start of the Johnson-Bird era in 1979, six NBA division races have been decided by just one game. In the same stretch, 12 Major League Baseball races have been decided by just one game.

Negotiations have bogged down and the NBA is expected to wipe out the rest of the November schedule after a Board of Governors meeting today. How much are you going to miss that Denver Nuggets Nuggets can refer to several branches of interest:
  • , a compilation of U.S. psychedelic rock released between 1965 and 1968
  • , a Rhino Records box set of non-U.S.
 game on the 22nd?

Probably not much. You'll still be talking about the USC-UCLA game on the 21st.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) NBA counsel Jeffrey Mishkin leaves a Tuesday bargaining session in New York City New York City: see New York, city.
New York City

City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S.
.

Adam Nadel/Associated Press

(2--Color) NBA Players Association president Patrick Ewing uses the phone after meeting with team owners.

Jeff Geissler/Associated Press
COPYRIGHT 1998 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1998, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:SPORTS
Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Oct 28, 1998
Words:740
Previous Article:OVITZ CAN'T WAIT; HE SEES NO REASON FOR OWNERS TO SIT ON DECISION.(SPORTS)
Next Article:NOTES: TRIO PICKED TO PLAY IN TOURNAMENT.(SPORTS)



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