That all sounds good. All of it sounds good. At one point during the exchange between DeWine and Selig, the senator grilled the commissioner, asked him if he had the power to implement some of the Blue Ribbon Panel's recommendations today. Will pulled out his fancy, albeit appreciated, words. Serendipitously, contrivance, agnostic, salient, exacerbated.
Owners say they are.
So do the players, competitors all. And Costas, in his voice that is made for such hearings, basically backed the panel's suggestions because he came up with similar ideas in his book, Fair Ball . Costas is on record as saying if the economic disparity continues to grow, fans in small-revenue markets will lose interest. Baseball has seen eight work stoppages since 1972. That's about one every four years.