McAdam: As labor talks drag on, baseball is squandering its big chance

I was talking with a friend last week -- someone who has worked both in baseball and in the media -- and, with some resignation in his voice, he asked: "Remember when baseball used to lead?''

The question hung in the air for a while. Yes, we both remembered such a time. But what followed was the sad realization that, today, such a notion feels hopelessly antiquated.

Still, there was a time when people turned to baseball in times of crisis. Baseball offered a balm at times, a distraction at others, something to take our minds off some bit of ugliness around us: an economic depression, a war, or a national calamity.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.