Baseball: the more things change ...

Former Indians owner Bill Veeck once said, "Baseball is the only thing beside the paper clip that hasn't changed."
Most people would probably disagree -- especially about Major League Baseball -- but I think Veeck may be on to something.
A former player once said: "The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money that's in it -- not for the love of it, the excitement of it and the thrill of it. Times seem to have changed since I broke in more than a generation ago."
The player's name was Ty Cobb. He said it in 1925.
Familiar: As baseball spirals into possibly its 10th labor stoppage since 1972, the rhetoric thrown around by such unselfish, high-minded groups as the players' union and baseball's owners will start to sound pretty familiar.
To wit:
Chicago White Stockings owner Albert Spalding had this doomsday forecast in 1881: "Professional baseball is on the wane. Salaries must come down or the interest of the public must be increased in some way. If one or the other does not happen, bankruptcy stares every team in the face."
Ninety years later, Peter O'Malley was equally accurate when he said, "I believe salaries are at their peak, not just in baseball, but all sports. It's quite possible some owners will trade away, or even drop entirely, players who expect $200,000 salaries. There's a superstar born every year ... But still there is no way clubs can continue to increase salaries to the level some players are talking about."
Need more? How about William A. Hubert, the former National League president, who said this: "It is ridiculous to pay ballplayers $2,000 a year, especially when the $800 boys often do just as well."
Or Veeck's observation, "It isn't really the stars that are expensive. It's the high cost of mediocrity."
Little change: And today's stars aren't much different than the ones from the past. Joe DiMaggio twice held out before signing his contract during his playing days. The only person who could out-drink Mickey Mantle during his career was broadcaster Harry Caray.
Don Sutton even called himself, "The most loyal player money can buy." He then proved it by pitching for the Dodgers, Astros, Brewers, Athletics and California Angels.
Players make more money now thanks to the advent of free agency in 1976. But players aren't necessarily greedier -- note the eight work stoppages in the 25 years before 1994's strike season -- they just have more opportunities to act upon their greed.
Baseball's problems have little to do with its popularity, its players or its pace. All the rhetoric in the world isn't going to change this fact: Haves are still dominating have-nots. And the players and owners will someday have to share the pie. (Chant with me: Revenue sharing, salary cap. Revenue sharing, salary cap.)
Selig's insight: Luckily, we can count on the able leadership of the immortal Bud Selig. Here's a sampling of his insight through the past decade:
"The one thing we know today is we can't continue to do business the way we have in the past." (Selig, 1992)
"You can debate the numbers, but you can't debate a minimum of 12 to 14 [teams that lose money]. And we just can't ignore that anymore." (Selig, 1994)
"The economic landscape of the game must be changed, and the way we do business must be changed." (Selig, 2000)
So change it. Lock the owners and the players union in a room and don't let them out until they've worked out a way for teams in every city to have a chance.
And don't believe what either side says about the other. Because over the past 125 years, little has changed between players and owners.
The only difference is we have to pay more for hot dogs now.
XJoe Scalzo is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.