When I was Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper in law school, I caught flack for a lot of items we printed. The issue for which I caught the most flack was the issue we devoted to baseball. That issue ran like 22 pages. People criticized me for engaging in discussion of what they viewed as frivolous when so many awful things were afoot in the world.

   Baseball has been part of this country's culture for 160  years (or more, depending upon how one views the origins of the Game). The Los Angeles (nee Brooklyn) Dodgers were purchased yesterday by a syndicate headed by Magic Johnson for a whopping Two Billion Dollars ($2,000,000,000.00). Professional sports franchises drain our tax dollars for billionaire owners. The popular observation made by Juvenal in Rome, as how best to control the masses, was "Give them circuses and bread and they will never revolt." The same principle holds true (probably) today in the United States.

   Our discussion Saturday will not consist of predictions about the season ahead. (I am a fan of the Chicago Cubs National Baseball Club. The season ahead, for us, is one of tragedy.)  Instead, we shall discuss why does Major League Baseball(r) make and spend so much money and deliver such a lousy product? What can be done to get kids today more interested in baseball? Why are there no salary caps in MLB(r)? Should double-headers be brought back and the season shortened?

   The purpose of "Civil Discourse Now" is to present discussion about matters of importance. That does not mean every week we shall discuss matters of life and death. 

   We shall be at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell, across from the Monon Trail on Saturday, March 31 at 11 a.m. All are welcome.