By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

Thank heavens for baseball. Right now, baseball seems like just about the only thing with an upside potential.

On the down side, there's the war, the stock market, state budget deficits, SARS, North Korea, the war, "Fear Factor," the state of our schools, Geraldo Rivera, interisland airfares, the Mideast, vanishing 401(k)s, "Are You Hot?," crystal meth, bankrupt airlines, al-Qaida, and, of course, the war.

So baseball season, which started last week, arrived just in time.

It's always been that way. The writer Thomas Boswell says time begins on opening day. Each year, baseball and spring arrive together. Baseball gives all of us a chance to start fresh. We sure can use it this year.

Baseball is America's parallel universe. It's not just a diversion; it's an alternate reality. It has its own time span, from April to October, and it has its own timelessness (It ain't over till it's over). It's a way to seriously focus on things other than those that are really serious.

Best of all, baseball is not war. Unlike football, there are no battles in the trenches, no hand-to-hand combat, no long marches up and down the field, no long bombs, no coaches urging players to take no prisoners.

Instead, baseball is our most pastoral sport. (It's hard to imagine baseball taking hold in post-war Iraq like it did elsewhere after our wars with Japan and Korea.)

The late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti likened baseball to a Homeric journey, in which the batters have to circumnavigate the bases, fraught with alluring danger, and try to return safely to their family, waiting at home.

Baseball always has helped America through tough times. In 1942, according to the New York Times, more than 30,000 people saw the Yankees beat the Senators on opening day, even as American bombers attacked Japanese targets in the Philippines and President Franklin Roosevelt warned that there would be many years of war ahead.

Last Monday, more than 50,000 people filled a stadium to watch the Cubs beat the Mets, even as U.S. troops battled their way toward Baghdad, 10 civilians were killed in a horrible mistake at a checkpoint, and President Bush warned that the war could take longer than most people expected.

Of course, you can push the parallels and differences too far. I know baseball isn't the antidote for all of the nation's troubles. After all, the people who make up professional baseball — players, team owners, union representatives, broadcasting executives — are mostly greedy, selfish individuals who see the game as a matter of salary caps, attendance figures, endorsements and a ticket to be rude to fans.

"It is designed to break your heart," Giamatti said. "The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."

Still, given everything else going on in the world these days, I'll take my chances with baseball.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5466.