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Whltby Free Proua, Wednosday, January 1,1995 , Page 7 Aconversion Can we see if we have this straight? Owners'of National Hockey LýeagLie clubs want to limit what players will be paid. On the other hand, players want no limit. They want free agency, whatever that is, at age 30 instead of 32. At the time of this writing (Monday evening, 10 p.m.) the chance of a brief (50-game) NHL season does not look good. But can we really be understanding ail of this? First, it is the owners who are offering outlandish salaries to players -- asking players to accept a salary cap, or tax to save them from themselves. See? Even describing it, the pronouns trip over their own antecedents and you don't know who is doing what to whom. But Harki It gets better. The players want no limits no time, no where. (For players, read: National Hockey League Players Association). In ordinary, working-place union-management, battles, we expeet hard-nose to hard-nose bargaining. Not that even there this malces sense: power-versus-power negotiations lead nowhere. Just ask the people who used to wôrk at the Oshawa Times. N4ow the NHL: that's different. For one thing, each teamn (owner) is a inulti- million-dollar,,çorporation. The fact that for stars much of this income arrives through endorsements, commercials, whatever, doesn't go far. Without a league, and the publicity it engenders, these gays wouldn't be household names. No household name, no dandruif commercial. Thank of it: it almost makes sense for players to pay a leagne tax on al endorsement income. If NHLPA were a real union, then salary negotiations would be part of the contractual agreement. Players, however, want the right to negogiate their own salary arrangements. They want the Players Association to save them from themselves, if, for example, they ask too much and get dumped. assgetdht One cominon tater in recentdasugeedtt the hard-line hawks on both sides might benefit from a sex change operation. Testosterone is not the drug of compromise. Somehow I doubt estrogen injections would help. Most of us feel that since we don't understand these issues, they must be complex. Far from it. The issues are su, simple that neither players nor owners can understand them. Put it this way: the owners want the players to save them from themselves, and the players want the players' association to save them froin the owners; and the players' association wants the owners Wo save the players. Beneath alI this, surely someone knows that both owners and players must join forces to save the league. And the NHL is, after aIl, the Golden Goose that feeds thein aIl. And while owners battle players or vice versa, nobody is feeding the Golden Goose. Every strike has victims. If we have no league play this year we can expect several snialler franchises to go belly up or move to sunnier climates. Moving, a franchise can happen only in boom days. Every day -the NHL is idle it loses a few hundred fans in the soft fringe areas of the U.S. Expansion potential withers. So wa'scal:exec afial lstmîut Mji - lu - w - - I. BALDWIN STRIEET LOOKING SOUTH BROOKLÏINP C. 1909 The BrooklIn Pharmacy now stands where the wooden building is at the left of this picture. The building right of centre was demolished in 1971 to build the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Notice the wooden sidewalks, and that there is *not one person or carniage on the street on this cold day. .<1y*pht 10 YEAR«S AGO From the Wedesay Janua 9 986edition of the " Parents fear English language instruction could be crowded out by French immersion at E.A. Fairman Public School. " DuPont's Whitby plant has had no on-the-job accidents for two years. " Tenders have been called for a noise barrner to be constructed on Highway 401 west of Brock Street. " Whitby's fire basses were over $1 million in 1984. 35 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, January7l, 1960 edition of the WK[TBY WEEKLY NEWS " Debenturing for a new public library has been deferred for two months at the first Town Council meetingy of 1960. * Tax Collector Forbes McEwen wants land developers to pay back taxes before their subdivisions are approved. " Railwa crossing signaIs at the Hopkins Street CPR crossing will coat up to $12,000. " TownCo9uncil wants to preserve the old trees on Brock Street South. 80 YEARS AGO fronthe Thursd Jnuar 7,l915 edition of the " James McClellan, a former member of the Town Council,. died on Jan. 5, at the age Of 69. " William John Haycraft of Brooklin, Warden of Ontario County in 1911, died at Edmonton, Alberta, on Dec. 31,,11.aLred 55 yeas *Rifle ranges are being buiît so theWibyHorne Guard members can have some shooting practice. " Rev. A.?. Menzies was inducted as minister of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Jan. 5. -1 1 .................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ---à bAR 1 L-m- ee