Mitchell on America’s pastime

There are two hot races these days – the major league pennant contests and the chase for vice president. George Mitchell has been trying to make the first a fairer proposition. If you believe the New York Times, President Clinton is trying to put Mitchell on the Democratic presidential ticket.

According to the Times, Clinton is advising party leaders that the retired Maine senator “would bring a weight and dignity to the ticket, has no skeletons in his closet and would be particularly appealing because he is Catholic.” A White House strategist told the Times, “Clinton loves him.”

Mitchell’s chances might be boosted if George W. Bush, as rumored, picks John McCain to round out the GOP ticket, forcing Gore to counter with a “stature” candidate of his own. Mitchell was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Northern Ireland.

This much is known. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Al Gore’s point man, has twice interviewed Mitchell. There were published reports Thursday that Christopher was making rounds on Capitol Hill soliciting views about Mitchell from Democratic members of Congress.

A GOP veteran pointed out one potential downside to a Gore-Mitchell ticket. Gore has waged a political jihad against the tobacco industry, citing, during an emotional Democratic convention speech, the death of his sister from lung cancer. Mitchell was Big Tobacco’s point man in initiating negotiations leading up to the $206 billion settlement with state attorneys general.

For the past year and a half, Mitchell also has been engaged with a unlikely panel that includes conservative columnist George Will; Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman; and Richard Levin, Yale University president, in drafting recommendations to save the American pasttime from the boredom of the annual Ted Turner vs. George Steinbrenner World Series. The panel’s 87-page report reads like a World Bank analysis of a dysfunctional Third World economy.

“I, like most fans, generally were aware there was a coalition between salaries and winning. What came as something of a surprise was the fact that in the past five years there have been 27 World Series games played … and everyone of them was won by the higher payroll team,” said Mitchell in a telephone interview last week. Going back even further, he said, the high payroll teams won 158 of 169 post-season games played during the same five-year period.

Baseball, unlike the National Basketball League and National Football League, where have-not clubs like the St. Louis Rams and San Antonio Spurs have won recent championships, risks becoming a big corporation sport, where the all American dream of an underdog victory has been crushed by hundred-million-dollar payrolls. Given the diverse politics of the panel, you would have thought a consensus would have been impossible. Will, who editorially denounces Democratic income-redistribution proposals, and Volcker, Ronald Reagan’s champion of rough-and-tumble capitalism, signed on to a plan that loots the deep pockets of the rich teams to help struggling franchises become competitive. Under the proposal, for example, the Yankees would be forced to contribute $25 million to a pool benefiting small-market teams. The bottom eight teams also would get to draft one player from the eight playoff teams.

Mitchell said despite their political differences, he and Will have been friends for some time. The two men share a membership in the long-suffering brotherhood of teams unable to win the World Series for most of the last century. Will is anutso Cubs fan. Mitchell has been described as a “nutty” Red Sox follower. The Cubs last won in 1908 and Red Sox in 1918. The Red Sox and Cubs are not paupers in terms of revenue and payrolls – Boston ranked eighth and Chicago twelfth. But the difference is telling. The Yankees have an advantage of more than $50 million in local revenue over the Sox, which is why they can sign or trade for expensive free agents for their late-summer pennant drive while Boston is forced to take a pass on big-contract players like Sammy Sosa.

The ball now is in the owners’ hands, said Mitchell, who at one time was considered a leading candidate to become major league baseball’s commissioner. Being picked Al Gore’s running mate would be a fine way to cap a distinguished political career.

For long-suffering Red Sox fans, though, Mitchell’s plan to reverse the “curse of the Bambino” may prove the greater legacy.

John Day is a columnist for the Bangor News who is based in Washington, D.C. His e-mail address is zanadume@aol.com.