Privileged set balks at concessions for the coronavirus

One oft-repeated sentiment during this coronavirus pandemic is that “we’re all in this together.” That’s true — but Blake Snell didn’t get the memo.

The pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays served up some fine whine via a Twitch stream this week. “I’m not playing unless I get mine,” he said. “I’m not splitting no revenue. I want all mine.”

For the 27-year-old, that “all mine” is a $50 million, five-year contract that included a $3 million signing bonus, a $1 million salary last year and a $7 million salary this season.

But that was in pre-coronavirus dollars, when the economy was open and thriving. Now, virtually all businesses have taken drastic hits to their bottom line. This week, 3 million more filed for unemployment benefits, with 36 million Americans currently unemployed. Many with jobs have taken pay cuts.

Snell, however, lives in a bubble of entitlement, immune, if not to the coronavirus, then to the real world.

The coronavirus pandemic kneecapped the regular Major League Baseball season, and in March the MLB and players’ association hammered out an agreement to deal with the delay of play. Snell is being advanced $286,500 for the first 60 days of the season through May 24 but would not get any more in 2020 if no games are played. The deal calls for players to receive prorated shares of salary if the season does start; Snell would get $43,210 for each day of the schedule.

Teams say they would lose money if games are played in empty ballparks, and owners on Monday approved making a proposal to the union to base salaries on a 50-50 split of revenue.

“If I’m going to play, I should be at the money I signed to be getting paid,” Snell said. “I should not be getting half of what I’m getting paid because the season’s cut in half, all on top of a 33% cut of the half that’s already there, so I’m really getting like 25%. On top of that, it’s getting taxed. So imagine how much I’m actually making to play, you know what I’m saying?”

Snell is batting a thousand when it comes to cluelessness. To say this when ordinary people are getting up every day and working in grocery stores, driving trucks, making deliveries and performing other duties that are keeping the country going, while making a fraction of a fraction of his salary is unconscionable.

“I’m just saying, man, it just doesn’t make sense for me to lose all of that money and then go play and then be on lockdown, not around my family, not around the people I love and get paid way the hell less, and then the risk of injury runs every time I step on the field. So it’s, it’s just, it’s not worth it. It’s not. I love baseball to death. It’s just not worth it,” Snell continued.

The pitcher expressed fears about coronavirus and safety, something that’s top of mind for virtually everyone living through this pandemic. But unlike Snell, most people aren’t having a hissy over a dent in their millions. They do their jobs, if they’re fortunate enough to still have them.

Snell’s banking $286,500 already for the first 60 days of the play-less season. If he had a semblance of sympathy for nonmillionaires who don’t rake in cash for not working, he could donate that money to a food bank. They are swamped as the newly jobless struggle to put food on the table.

This pandemic has thrown into stark relief the enormous strength and spirit of everyday Americans, and the moral shortcomings of the privileged.

We call a foul on Snell and his ilk.