The real urgency for a commissioner

I don’t get involved in polly-ticks these days.

But, just a few days ago, I was at Gianni’s great restaurant in Pompano Beach, FL and sat next to a table where there was a “political war” going on between patrons.

About one touchy subject—you can guess—one lady said, “I don’t want any President or any member of Congress in MY bedroom!

“These people want to control everything and every ’body’ and take our freedom away.

“Many of them have proven to have more skeletons in their closets than the vast majority of us and can’t get out of their own way…and think they are immune to getting caught.

“It should all be up to the individual—not the politicians.”

The kicker to this was really comical…

“Next thing we’ll see,” she ‘warned,’ “it that eggs the chickens lay will have to be incubated so they all hatch and become chickens…goodbye scrambled eggs!”

I guess that was in retaliation to the frozen embryo controversy.

A gentleman then interrupted and uttered something like, “Yes, but we do need a President who is strong…a President with CONVICTION!”

(I kept quiet…but was very tempted to joke, “Yeah, and one of them might be CONVICTED THREE OR FOUR TIMES by election day!” But I didn’t! It’s, literally, dangerous in today’s world.)

But the conversation did wake me up to the fact that we need a commissioner for our sport…and the need is URGENT!

If we cannot govern ourselves like all other MAJOR spectator sports, every word that we have uttered…every speech made…every word in print…will matter naught.

We will have people governing our sport that have little knowledge of harness racing trying to implement rules and rulings that can further erode our future by ruining lives, livelihoods and cause financial pain with future reversals on appeal meaning little to those affected as the damage done will be irreversible.

Ignorance and neglecting the warning signs will slowly become a fatal future.

“Neck-by-neck, head-by-head, nose-by-nose…similar to the effects of climate change—will take effect and, once we get beyond a certain point…BALLGAME OVER!

Yes, WE NEED SOMEBODY AND SOME BODIES TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE!

Our sport isn’t alone in its ignorance to—and for—the future.

Did anyone notice what happened to a golf course in England just a few days ago?

The oldest nine-hole golf club in England—Alnmouth Village, established in 1869—has been flooding more rapidly in recent years due to global warming and erosion and, finally, some of it FELL INTO THE NORTH SEA!

The warnings have been there for years and years and inaction, inevitably,..caused disaster.

Similar things have happened here in the U.S. as homes have fallen into oceans as the wrath of Mother Nature becomes fiercer…and getting worse.

Of course, disaster hasn’t happened to the vast majority of you, and, for the veterans of our sport, it won’t matter to you—just as it won’t matter to me in this stage of precious life.

Beach erosion and our sport’s erosion over the years are said to be worlds apart but, make no mistake, they contain that same damming word threatening our future—EROSION.

The point is this…WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO GOVERN OURSELVES with universal rules on medication, rules and rulings with a strong handed Commissioner and a group of experts on every facet of our industry, willing to participate to make our sport translucent—easily understandable—with unquestionable transparency.

The idea of a commissioner has been around over a century, you know, with the power to determine, quite simply, what is the best interests of their particular sport.

Back in 1921, the Federal Courts authorized Kenesaw Mountain Landis to exercise a broad range of discretion in his “judge”ment—who, indeed, was a Federal Judge from 1905 to 1922 and became the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death in 1944.

It was he who is remembered for his steps in restoring confidence in baseball after the 1919 White Sox scandal in which that team conspired to lose the World Series.

Landis took the “bull by the horns” and threw out eight players of the “White” Sox for “blackening” the name of the game and repeatedly disallowed their requests for reinstatement.

Baseball is where it is today because of his vision a whole century ago!

Happy Chandler, Ford Frick, General “Spike” Eckert, Bowie Kuhn, Peter Ueberroth, A. Barton Giamatti, Francis Vincent, Jr., “Bud” Selig and Robert Manfred, Jr. have followed and have had a heavy hand to players and teams when improprieties are exposed.

From sign stealing to illegal bats to the spitball, drugs and betting, the penalties have been harsh and incontestable.

From the aforementioned Rob Manfred, Jr. to hockey’s Gary Bettman, to the NFL’s Roger Goodell to the NBA’s Adam Silver and Soccer’s Don Garber and the WNBA’s Cathy Engelbert, these Commissioners have kept their sport in the sunlight and moonlight and in the rain and snow and ice, these sports have impeccable images and, as a result, are growing and thriving as new forms of interest—like prop betting—are introduced to the public.

None of these Commissioners take any guff, whatsoever, with Silver even banning an owner for life for racial slurs years ago.

Commissioner Cathy Englebert has changed the way companies look at sponsoring women’s sports, which is exploding in popularity.

Commissioner Roger Goodell has seen NFL revenue triple to well over $20 billion and has come up with a great media invention in the process—the RED ZONE!

The longer we wait, the easier it will become for “outsiders”—that are already trying—to infiltrate our great sport.

Ours is a spectator sport with huge implications on the line in terms of lofty yearling prices, owner purses ensuring future participation and, most importantly, every member of the Broken Down Horseplayers Club trying to cash a ticket, whether it be on a $2 bet to win or a 20 cent Super Hi-5.

We need insurance that our industry will survive, and we need, breeders, owners, trainers, caretakers, drivers, sadly, the casino industry and, even more sadly, legislatures to survive.

Most of all, though, we need new fans!

We need a commissioner with futuristic vision and a staff like no other to get it done!

MAY THE HORSE BE WITH YOU!

by John Berry, for Harnesslink