Money is always the issue
Owners, players need to just figure it out or risk irrelevancy
Ted Williams was mad. Williams had missed three big-league seasons during World War II, but Uncle Sam was in desperate need of flyboys as war broke out on the Korean peninsula.
Williams stayed in the Marine Corps Reserve while playing for the Red Sox after WWII. Once Communist China entered the Korean conflict, a stalemate developed that more or less exists to this day. Williams was recalled to active duty in 1952. He fought like hell to get a deferment but struck out swinging. He was the sole supporter of his mother, brother, wife and daughter. He agreed to report for duty only after the Red Sox agreed to pay him his full $85,000 salary.
“He was pissed off to no end that he had to go back a second time,” ex-Red Sox infielder Ted Lepcio told author Ben Bradlee Jr. in “The Kid.”
Williams went 39-0 over Korea in 1953 as a Marine pilot, flying with the likes of John Glenn. It remains the most impressive record in the history of Boston sports.
Even though Williams had the right stuff, he long believed he had been wronged.
“Ted had a deep-seated hatred for the government for (expletive) up his career. ‘They didn’t know what they were doing. Nobody told us about the antiaircraft fire in some (expletive) valley. The reconnaissance was pathetic. They were putting lives at risk unnecessarily. They never warned us,’” former Red Sox clubhouse attendant John Murphy said in Bradlee’s book.
Other ballplayers pulled double-duty in WWII and Korea. Yankees second baseman Jerry Coleman was the only major-league pilot to see combat in both campaigns.
The story of Williams and many others whose WAR was war is necessary to put what is happening to baseball in 2020 in sensible context.
Countless “WWII” analogies have appeared during the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve been told “stay home” to protect those whose lives were defined by the courage they displayed in places like Normandy and Iwo Jima. It turns out merely keeping those with COVID-19 out of nursing homes and assisted care facilities would have saved thousands. The poor souls at the Holyoke Soldiers Home who defeated Hitler and fascism could not survive Bay State hackery and incompetence.
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell echoed the voice of big-league stupidity when he spoke of getting his. Snell wanted you to believe that he would get sick and/or die from COVID-19 if he returned to play. But he was willing to do so if the money was there.
Imagine Blake Snell negotiating with John W. Henry?
No wonder baseball teeters on the brink of irrelevance. We don’t even know for sure if the owners and players want to play this season. If ownership fears playing this year will cost too much in the short run, the cost of not trying to playing this year will be incalculable in the long run.
Max Scherzer brought some clarity Wednesday. Turns out the issue is money.
Money is always the issue, whether you’re dealing with a pandemic or the Korean War.
Owners write the checks. Therefore, any blame for failure falls upon them.
Split everything 50-50 and be done with it.
Baseball has whiffed miserably since postponing its season. The sport is racing toward insignificance and no one has the guts or brains to hit the brakes. The risk/ reward curve has bent back toward economic normalcy across much of the United States. Major League Baseball remains stuck in the panic room.
COVID-19 has killed more than 100,000 Americans and claimed 40.7 million jobs. As the nation prepares to take a collective knee and pick up what’s left of Minneapolis, athletes are using their social platforms to voice outrage over the needless death of George Floyd.
By the way, the 2020 Boston Marathon has been canceled.
There is no joy in Mudville, or anywhere else.
We need sports now more than ever.
The NHL, NASCAR, UFC, the PGA Tour, the Bundesliga in Germany, England’s Premier League, La Liga in Spain and the National Women’s Soccer League — among others — have either returned or plan to do so. The NBA is finalizing a blueprint for its playoff tournament at Walt Disney World.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has emerged as the dictator we needed but never knew it. The NFL hasn’t wavered in planning for the 2020 season. Goodell was savaged for having a virtual NFL draft until it turned out to be the biggest hit this side of “The Last Dance.”
Whether it’s the schedule or Tom Brady Buccaneers jersey sales, the NFL has adjusted as needed and kept its eyes focused on starting the season with the Texans and Chiefs on Sept. 10.
We may not have a football season. But at least we have a plan.
Courage, caution and common sense guided by “science.”
Sounds like a great recipe to deal with a pandemic, too.
June 1 is Monday. There is no sensible reason why MLB does not have a deal and plan. Games remain dependent on the medical situation at hand — which means they could happen in Florida, Texas and Arizona starting tomorrow.
Baseball’s pitch clock has run out of time.
As Ted Williams might say: “What a bunch of (expletive) idiots.”