While strikes in bowling are a good thing, isn't a strike in baseball a bad thing? Someone posed a question in a cycling forum about whether or not a baseball strike was inevitable.
I guess maybe it's because I'm not a baseball fan but I really couldn't care less. I'd be more disheartened by not being able to see the great architecture of the stadiums. That's by far my only real interest in ever attending baseball games (my wife's a baseball fan). To me, the game, the teams and the players are inconsequential. I do however find cricket to be a very intriguing game and wish we in the USA could see more of it.
As for appeasing the sportsfans, it's my contention that a real fan of any sports should lose little if the professional exhibitions of the sport goes away. Real sportsfans would participate and can keep themselves plenty occupied and entertained by actually DOING the sport as opposed to just watching it. But then again, this is baseball we're talking about here... sport which has a special moment to allow viewers to get up and stretch.
Would cycling fans be deeply hurt if the pros went on strike? Maybe indirectly they would due to slower innovations in bike technology/industry... then again maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing either. Would we pout and cry over it? Possibly but not likely. Most of us would just go out and ride. We can for the most part ride the same rides (body and mind willing), using the same equipment (wallet willing) and give ourselves our own entertainment. Cycling is nice that way... one can be quite self-sufficient in the sport. Cycling is one of the few sports I know where actually imitating the pros does pay good dividends. A recreational cyclist has every opportunity to train like the pros if they so desire.
Whenever I hear about baseball strikes, I get nauseated over the amount of attention paid to those whining players who's minimum salaries far exceed by a power of 10 those of much more important people like say... teachers. And look at some of the "issues" they're striking over. They're not satisfied with taking home double-digit million-dollar salaries and they object to being steroid-tested. They get undue attention when they don't whine... they get even more undue attention when they do whine. They're just like crying babies.