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Pa TLL ER Lh AT eB Pe oma a, VO CTR a Rn TNE PT AY NBR De Cr WR 2 SSP rt y LP? 4 = ay 13, 4 SN gl ye SUH + The Job Of Regional Chairman One of the most interesting elections at the local level is the vote every two years by the 30-member Durham council to select a new Regional chairman. Although there has been a lot of hemming and stammering in the Chairman's job, as of last week only one had publicly declared his candidacy. That's Gary Herrema, who is currently completing a term as Mayor of Uxbridge Township and member of the Regional council. Prior to his election as mayor, he sat as Uxbridge's rep on Regional council. Since Durham was formed seven years ago, there has been only one Regional chairman: Walter Beath. He got the job initially as an appointee of the provincial government, and was re-elected on two occasions by the council in 1976 and 1978. As of last week, Beath still had not declared what his intentions are this time . around, but there have been very strong rumours from excellent sources that he is in line for some kind of position with the provincial government and won't be seeking election as chairman. We believe that having a chairman of Durham Region from one of the smaller and so-called northern municipalities of Durham just might be a good thing at this time. And Gary Herrema, who is a capable, energetic and at times outspoken politician, would be anything but a poor choice. Certainly, the fact that Herrema was "first off the mark*' is an indication that he wants the job, and is prepared to gamble a little to get it. He has told the Uxbridge Township electorate that he will be seeking a second term as mayor on November 10, and win or lose, will also be seeking the Chairman's job at the first meeting of Regional council December 3. If he's not elected mayor, his chances of getting the chairman's post may be reduced. By the same token, the people of Uxbridge may not want to re-elect him mayor and then have him resign a few weeks later if elected Regional chairman. - It's a risky situation, but Herrema to his credit, has decided to accept the risk, and jump into the fray with both feet. Having Herrema, or anyone else from Scugog, Uxbridge or Brock Townships as Regional chairman would not necessarily mean any automatic advantages for the northern part of Durham. After all, these three Townships between them have just six votes out of 30 on Regional council. And the chairman doesn't vote on issues, except in the event of a tie. But a chairman from this part of Durham just might be able to help smooth the operation of the Region by acting as a kind of neutral arbiter and buffer between the competing factions in the southern half of Durham. Herrema has lots of experience at the Regional level. He's completing two years as chairman of the public works committee of council, and appears to have the respect of his fellow councillors and members of the Regional bureaucracy. Aside from this, and the fact that he's got lots of political savvy, we've got to give him credit for standing up to be counted while the rest of the hopefuls were . hedging their bets and testing the political breezes. We think he'd make a good chairman. chotterbo THE BALL GAME Thad a chance last week to join a rather large and vocal contingent of Port Perry baseball fans who made their way to Toronto's Exhibition Park to watch the Boys of Summer ply their trade on an evening when there was more than just a hint of Canadian autumn in the air. The game itself between the Yankies and Blue Jays was hardly a classic. In fact it was downright sloppy, with a number of errors one might expect to see on the sand-lot. This surprised me a little because it was anything but a nothing game for both teams. The Yankees are slugging it out with Baltimore for first place and every game is important. And the Blue Jays are 'slugging it out with themselves-as this season winds down, - trying to salvage some self-respect, and mindful that team officials are already planning next year's line-up. But the fact the Yankees were playing made it just a little special. There is something about the name "Yankees: the team, the history, the traditions, the mystique that puts them in a class of their own among baseball fans, even those who love to see them lose. I mean when you sit back, close your eyes and think about the Yankees, there are images of baseball and its glory days: images of legends and folk heroes named Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Mantle, Maris, Berra, Stengel, and Don Larsen who pitched a perfect game in the '56 World Series. So much has been said and written about the Yankees pinstripes and the men who wore them that the myths perpetuate themselves, and legends grow stronger, and the fine line between baseball fantasy and reality loses its focus and disappears completely. The Yankees are unique to baseball, and indeed all the world of sport. I mean, close your eyes, sit back and think about the Seattle Mariners. What comes to mind? Nothing. Sure, the Brooklin Dodgers have a tradition almost as rich and steeped in legend as the Yankees. What baseball fan will ever forget names like Reese, Snider, Hodges, Furillo, Campy, Gilliam, Robinson, Newcombe, and Walter editorial poge ros SRNR SSRN ! Ny ZN re R 59 Ny Re een WN Alston. They were the subject of one of the best books ever written about baseball: Roger Kahn's masterful '"The Boys of Summer." But unlike the Yankees, the legend of the Dodgers was built and perpetuated partly because they couldn't win the big ones. And don't forget that nobody ever calls the Yankees the "Bums of Flatbush.' Sitting in the stands last week watching the Yankees 1980 version, my senses lulled by the cadence and tempo that is unique to the game of baseball, I couldn't help but think about the Yankee legend. First of all, they had some great teams, and some of the best players to ever don a uniform anywhere. Just check the record book: And playing in the media capital of the Yorke, their exploits on the field (and off) got ink and lots of it. But, more important, I think, is the fact that the Yankee legend gives us a link with the past, to a time in recent history which seems much simpler, less confusing, and more easily defined than life in the 1980's. I think that baseball lovers (and all of society) harbour a desire to seek out and create heroes. But we can't these days, because in 1980 hero-worship is out of fashion, unsophisticated. And anyway, how could we prop Reggie Jackson up as a hero when the cad won't even sign an autograph for a polite kid in the lobby of a Toronto hotel. No, it is much more socially acceptable and easier to keep alive the memories of heroes from yesteryear. And why not? Back in the thirties and forties, baseball was a game for boys played by men under the summer sun. The Great Depression was hard times, but baseball in the afternoon took some of the sting out of it. There may not have been much money around, but nearly everyone could scrape together two bits for a seat in the bleachers. When the war came Hitler and Tojo were evil. Young boys joined up without a question and went off to war to stamp out this evil. And when the young boys came home from the wars as grown-up men, the evil had been stamped out for ever and ever, they thought. by John B. McClelland 'And when they got home, there were jobs to go to, and baseball under the afternoon sun, just like before. In the 1950's, new w came along - the Red Menace and the Yellow Menaké - and they were accepted as evil almost without question. There was a car in every garage, a chicken in every pot, and a TV set in almost every home. And hero worship was still fashionable. But suddenly, one dark November day in Dallas, somebody with a high-powered rifle took a shot at the biggest hero of them all and blew his brains apart. After we got over that terrible, initial shock, we slowly came to the conclusion that our heroes were vulnerable and human like the rest of us. The let-down was unbearably 'painful. So painful in fact that we collectively decided to abandon hero-worship because we couldn't bear to see another hero cut down like Kennedy was.' And it's just as well because five years later King got it in Memphis and Bobby bled to death in the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel. -By then, young men were refusing to go to the baseball games with their fathers. Half the young men were fighting and dying in the rice paddies, and the rest were marching in the streets back home and burning their draft cards on the lawn of the White House. Baseball suddenly became a symbol of society gone mad, and to worship a baseball hero was like worshipping John Wayne in "The Green Berets." But with the seventies behind us, baseball is again back in vogue. The ball parks are filled with fans, the Yankees are in first place, there is a bona fide pennant race in the National League East, and things are almost as they once were. "But not quite. Baseball hasn't changed much. There are still great hitters and. great pitchers. But society and the people who go to the ball park don't have the faintest resemblance to those of the thirties, forties or fifties. We don't go to the park to forget about the problems of (Turn to page 5) Ad