Nearly everyone who actually

cares about whether major league baseball players will go on strike this

season has also chosen whom to blame for it.

Granted, there's plenty of

obvious blame to go around, what with the way the players and owners have

behaved in general during the so-called negotiations. But let's look at

it a little bit deeper and see if there might be a correlation between

this possible action and a much larger issue in American society.

On the players' side, you have

huge sums being paid every year to players, and team payrolls that just

get bigger every year, provided the team is in a large enough market to

afford it. As you look at a typical major league roster from top to bottom,

you see not only the ridiculously high price for superstardom, but also

the ridiculously high price for mediocrity; for every $15 million-per-year

home run champion, there's a handful of part-time players who ride the

bench at $2 million apiece.

On the owners' side, you have

regular threats to move teams from city to city, alienating fans across

the country, and blackmailing local governments for new stadiums loaded

with revenue-rich luxury boxes and tax breaks galore. They alternate crying

about high salaries with their continued efforts to raise the bar in that

regard by signing the latest bank-breaking free agent.

But does the sports fan have

any responsibility in this matter? "No way," you say. How can

the average sports fan, who goes out and works a full week just to make

a living, have any responsibility for this insanity going on between a

bunch of spoiled adults?

That's easy. The culture of

the sports fan in America, by raising sports to a position far above what

it should actually occupy among our collective priorities, and continuing

to support it financially at the expense of good common sense, has brought

major league baseball and all other professional sports (plus major college

athletics) to where it is today.

The cost for a family of four

to take in a major league baseball game is ludicrous. Ticket prices have

gone up consistently across the board for years, but as long as fans keep

paying them, why shouldn't they? I have no problem with any player getting

what he or she can rightfully get in a free market; the problem is what

has happened to that market.

The financial rewards available

in professional sports have polluted the minds of countless young people,

who have forfeited their chances for a good education to chase an impossible

dream. That's the culture American sports fans have created by placing

such unreasonable importance on games and entertainment.

Athletes hold a position of

leadership in our society that most of them have no business holding.

No ballplayer should be a role model simply by virtue of being a ballplayer,

but that's the culture today in America and there's no way to avoid it.

But instead of using that influence in a positive manner, too many athletes

do exactly the opposite. For every pro player who impacts young people

for the better, there are 10 who form a daily parade across the police

blotters of this country.

At the college level, cheating

is epidemic. Players coming out of desperate financial situations have

money and perks thrown at them by boosters seeking wins at any cost and

coaches whose very careers depend upon their win-loss records. Those who

set foot on campus unequipped to handle the academic load sometimes find

it handled for them, and they leave college no more literate than when

they entered.

Why is all of this happening?

Because the games have taken priority.

There was a time in this country

when playing games on Sunday would not have been thought of. Take a look

at today's Sunday sports pages. You can park in front of your television

set early in the morning and watch games nonstop until midnight. We built

a nation on the freedom to worship as we please, and millions of Americans

worship at the sports altar on a weekly basis, while their children grow

up in a spiritual vacuum.

Want to do a little scientific

research? Take a poll of 10 or 20 friends and family members. Ask them

to name the starting lineup for the Atlanta Braves or whatever favorite

team they might have. Then ask them to name their two U.S. senators and

the U.S. representative, state senator and state representative from their

respective districts. You can probably imagine what the results of that

poll would be.

If the baseball players and

owners reach a new collective bargaining agreement, it will only be temporary.

It's going to take some responsibility from players, owners and fans to

turn back the past few decades of sports worship in this country and have

some lasting effects. And the chances of that happening look pretty slim.