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Yes, sports fans, New York can survive March and April without major league baseball. May is another question altogether.
The spring blossoms will still come to the trees, rains will still flood the roads and sewers and Little Leaguers will still attack the city's baseball diamonds en masse. The Knicks and Rangers will still fill the Garden and there's always speculation over the National Football League draft.
But, if the current labor dispute between major league owners and players results in no baseball in April and drags into May, sporting goods stores, sports bars, broadcast stations, hotels and restaurants throughout the five boroughs, as well as the city treasury, will feel the pinch.
Jim Root knows. As manager of the large Gerry Cosby & Co. sporting goods store next to Madison Square Garden, he learned how much a sports labor tiff can crunch sales during the 1987 pro football walkout.
"I was overinventoried for a year," he growls. With the players' strike stifling fan interest, he got stuck with close to $100,000 worth of football shirts, caps, uniforms and equipment.
A prolonged baseball lockout would have its greatest impact on the city's coffers. In a 1988 study, the city comptroller's office estimated that the New York...