I am surprised and disheartened at the lack of investigation for “A Good Move for Baseball.” Baseball has finally reached respectability once again, gaining fans throughout this great season, and now the owners want to “assist” the game, once again. First, the talent pool in Major League Baseball is not necessarily decreasing or being thinned out, but instead players are bigger and stronger than ever, swinging at the ball as hard as possible.

Strikeout records are being set at the same rate as home-run records.

Team averages are also at a consistent level, or even down, of previous years. Strategy of the game has turned from hit and run and bunting players over, to hoping some guy who’s been popping steroids all summer to catching up to Randy Johnson’s fastball.

It has transformed from finesse to power. And yet power does not dominate the game. Of the players to hit 60 home runs in the `90s, none have won any titles, and the years McGwire and Bonds hit 70, their teams weren’t in the playoffs.

As for the teams up for contraction, what little integrity is left in the game would disappear by “ridding” the league of the Twins.

The Twins have the second- most World Series Titles in the past 20 years and set attendance records on their way to titles in 1987 and 1991.

Had contraction come up 10 or 15 years ago, the Indians, Mariners, Blue Jays and even the Braves would have all been candidates. And look where they are today.

Teams have ups and downs, and so do their fan bases. Allowing owners to contract now will open the floodgates to even more ludicrous big-business ideas in the future.

Baseball is a game played by fans, for fans. It’s time baseball left itself alone.

Kyle R Briese

Junior

Accounting