Hokum

Back in the day, like a lot of cub reporters working for small newspapers, I’d haul along a camera and take shots of whatever fluffy event I might happen to be covering (real news photography was handled by the single staff photographer). Here’s some of my artwork from half my life ago, courtesy of one of my many former employers, The Southeast Missourian of Cape Girardeau, Mo.

I was looking at bananas the other day when I heard four thumps on the drums — an opening I listened to, oh, about 1,427 times in the early 1980s.

“No,” I told myself. “It can’t be.”

But it was, right there, playing over the speaker system at my neighorhood Safeway — R.E.M.’s “Radio Free Europe.” Now, we’re not just talking about R.E.M. here — we’re talking about old-school R.E.M., four-albums-before-breaking-huge R.E.M., all-the-cool-kids-are-listening-to-this-unless-they’re-too-cool-for-cool R.E.M.

Michael Stipe’s voice floated through the air, mixed too far down to comprehend, and I still have no idea what the hell this song (or most of R.E.M.’s early songs) is about. But there it was — the four drum thumps and that first line: “Decide yourself if radio’s gonna stay.”

Or at least, that’s what I think the first line says. Opinions still vary on that topic and Michael Stipe’s always been a little circumspect about the lyrics on that whole album. It was the 1980s, after all, and a lot of people were varying their blood chemistry at the time.

It is mildly depressing to hear “Radio Free Europe” or Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” or even, so help me, The Clash used to enhance the 2009 shopping experience. These songs were dangerous once, and now they’re sanitary enough to play in the cereal aisle. Decide yourself, indeed.

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Actually, a little Google-ing indicates “Radio Free Europe” wasn’t so dangerous after all:

I used to work for USA Today. I was proud to work for USA Today. It was wrenching for me to leave USA Today (although I am every bit as proud to now work for NPR).

But…just since October, USA Today has lost:

• The publisher
• The editor
• One of two executive editors (the No. 2 slot in the newsroom)
• The graphics/design managing editor (remember what newspaper we’re talking about here, too)
• Me; I ran the rewrite/continuous news desk and was the editor of the dot-com news section.
• The breaking news and White House/politics bloggers. These blogs often were the most popular features of any kind on USATODAY.com.
• One of the nation’s best-known politics reporters.

Those are just the changes of which I’m aware. Keep in mind that this has happened over a mere six months.

In that same time, USA Today-ers have had their pay frozen and have been forced to take two to three weeks of unpaid leave.

Not long ago, this sort of turnover would have taken several years, if it happened then. I’ll bet that several other big newspapers have had similar recent turmoil. And once again, you don’t have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.

Check out the story topic, then look at the ad:

What if they played a baseball game and nobody came?

That theory might be tested by the Nats this year, short-squeezed by last year’s disappointment, this year’s uncertainty, a horrible economy that has the Washington lobbying/industrial complex cutting back on ticket purchases, and a palpable level of fan indifference after a string of mediocre-at-best seasons.

I wasn’t expecting a huge crowd, but I was expecting a reasonable one with the O’s in town for the last pre-season game of this year. I assumed some O’s fans would drift down for novelty’s sake and that, on a reasonably warm and pretty April Saturday, a crop of fans just would come out just for the heck of it. As you can see, I was wrong; I’d estimate that perhaps 10,000 to 15,000 actual people showed up.

You can still buy plenty of tickets to the home opener. I actually bought a pair of club seats from StubHub that were below list price. I’ve already talked to a couple of people in my current season ticket group who say this is the last year for them — if nothing else, the fact that they keep getting furloughed as journalists is killing their disposable income — and I imagine they are far from alone.

To top it all, the Nats are owned by real estate developers. I somehow doubt they have a lot of disposable income to kick around these days.

And so, 2009 might be the key year for the Nats as a franchise. Even if they have a winning record, they are likely to struggle at the box office. And if they get anywhere near the 2008 debacle, we might head toward Senators territory of indifference. And trust me: If this team blows up, Washington will never again see a major league baseball franchise.