Photo submitied

WEST VANCOUVER swimmer Brett Creed, seen here at the end of a recent competition, is one of 11 local athletes taking part in the Commonwealth Games, opening tomorrow in Victoria.

1994 Games profile

NAME: Brett Creed HOME TOWN: West Vancouver AGE: 19 EVENT: 1,500m Freestyle PERSONAL BEST: 15:38 min. COMPETING ON: Heats — Tuesday, Aug. 23. Finals — Wednesday, Aug. 24.

At. the age of 19, West - Vancouver’s Brett Creed is the youngest North Shore competitor at

the Victoria Commonwealth Games.

Creed placed second in the {500m at the 1993 Canada Games, and posted his best-ever time in May of this year.

“{’'m going in ranked seventh overall, and with the Australians competing (the top three in the world) [I’m just hoping to swim my best,” Creed says of his race.

Victoria 94

XV Commonwealth Gares™ RV Jeux du Commonwealth AUGUST 10-28 AOUT 196

C.C.M. SUPRA

C.C.M. SKATES

SP650 SUPER TACKS

A technically improved version of this all-time classic

HP20 & 21 HOCKEY PANTS

A SUPRA Pant designed specifically for the high

$

calibre player, Boys' sizes Reg, $159.99 SALE

Baseball’s war of attrition

Baseball owners hope to improve on dismal 0-7 record

BAUER

“SUPREME”

CUSTOM 2000 SKATES

A Source for Sports exclusive! With many of the deluxe features found in Bauer's top skate, nota the unique new black blade and two colour outsole.

No negotiating ground, the owners’ only hope for victory is to outlast their opponents. What a hope! The players have a $200 million strike

anywhere nearly as serious as a pub- lic service strike and a sudden shut- down of the various goodies govern- ment normally provides.

Jim

Kearney

THE SPECTATOR

SO, WHY ali the sore bloody hearts because the millionaire baseball players have gone out on strike against the multi-millionaire team own-

. ers?

Why ai! this public wailing and moaning by many people in these here parts, an area that doesn’t even have a major league bal! club? Are they missing their almosi daily TV fix? :

If so, they should switch to the weather channel. The excitement is about the same. And, aside from boob-tube deprivation, what’s so important about a baseball strike, anyway?

Just have a look at how few peo- ple are involved and how few are economically affected. About 700 players and 28 owners have gone to war. Only ball park employves. tost of them part-time help, are suffering, and the public as a whole is not inconvenienced.

This doesn’t exactly have the impact of a transit strike. where thousands can't get to work. Nor is it

All we have here is an employee group. with an average salary of US$1.2 million a year, taking on an even richer group of employers, all crying crocodile tears and pretending they’re headed for the UI offices. A plague, I say,-on both their houses.

The owners have looked at the NBA. which has had a salary cap for years, and at the NFL, which has just acquired one, and have decided that’s whal'they want, too. But the players’ union has told them to get lost, which is hardly surprising.

The NBA got this concession from the players at a time the league was close to foundering. Now it is the most prosperous, best run league in pro sport. But the players are growing restless. They did the league a favor when times were tough. They want it returned; that is, an end to the salary cap. Their chances? At the moment, fat and none.

The NFL got a salary cap as part of a tradeoff with the union, which had been seeking unrestricted free agency for a couple of decades. Free agency is now a fact, where it used to be a myth, and already the players are saying the union blew it.

The way the new, capped cager economy is working out. half a dozen key players on each team can account for almost half the salary budget. This means veteran players. whose salaries have increased over the years, are being cut to make room for lower paid rookies straight out of college.

The baseball owners’ problem is they have nothing to trade. The play- ers won the free agency battle years ayo. There’s nothing significant nuinagement can give them in return for cupping their incomes.

Given the fact there is virtually

fund and they don’t even plan to touch it for the first month.

So, if it's to be a war of attrition, look for a long, jong work stoppage. For the rest of the season? Certainly. And maybe much of next season, too.

This is the eighth baseball strike/lockout in 22 years. So far the owners are batting O for 7. They are not without egos. For u change. they'd like to win one.

But if they’re smart — and there seem to be some doubts on this score ~~ they should rernember what that old philosopher, Spinoza, so accu- rately told the world 300 years ago: “Nature abhors a vacuum” — espe- cially in what we are pleased to call our market economy.

if they’re about to sit tight and Not operate, surely there are other people who will. And there's a great big pool of unemployed talent out there to draw from. How they must wish, in their heart of hearts, fora return to the days of the reserve clause, when a player was bound to a team for his entire career, unless the kindly boss chose to trade him or fire him.

They didn’t have strikes in those long ago days or, if they did. they lasted less than a day and the owners always won. Typical was the sit- down strike the Red Sox and Cubs players pulled ini the middle of the 1918 World Series.

The league presidents and the tcam owners told them to get back to work, or else. The players wanted larger playoff shares, but didn’t get them. The victorious Boston players Settled for $890 each and the Cubs $535. Given those numbers, they had a point.

See Batting page 16

WINNWELL PRO 74 HOCKEY GLOVE * Junior Model

Reg. $29.99

Reg. $399.99 su DAG?

sa? ] 99

C.C.M. HT2 HELMET

The most popular choice of

professianal players. © Men's & Boys’ sat?

Reg. $99.99

SOURCE FOR SPORTS

Lynn Valiey Centre 1199 Lynn Valiey Rd., N.Van.

980-9211