MLB owners, players still not near decision on starting season.
Here comes good pitch to hit, and baseball misses it badly
This is the perfect time for Major League Baseball to announce its return.
But MLB, of course, is blowing its perfect opportunity.
An 82-game season initially proposed by the league was far from ideal but better than nothing during the coronavirus pandemic.
The MLB Players Association’s counteroffer Sunday of a 114game season also was far from ideal — and undercut players’ insistence that safety was their No. 1 priority.
Monday lowered the bar again.
ESPN reported that MLB has considered a severely shortened regular season that would top out around 50 games.
From 82 to 114 to 50? That math doesn’t make sense.
And the childlike back-and-forth continues to insult a fan base that is waiting to hear three simple words: Baseball is back.
If anyone tells you this isn’t about billionaires trying to get an edge on millionaires and athletic millionaires attempting to win a round versus billionaires, immediately stop listening to them. That’s all it’s been about since negotiations began. Just ask Blake Snell and Max Scherzer.
Owners have appeared out of touch. Players keep reminding us that that they are fortunate to live inside a protective bubble.
This week, which could make or break the 2020 season, should have started with hope. Instead, it began with a national
report about the potential of a 50-game season, which isn’t a season at all.
Baseball, more than any other sport, is defined by the length of its season. Real teams last, persevere and advance. Fake ones fall apart.
The Astros played 28 games last August. They also played 28 contests last May. Which means that in two months of a six-month season, the 2019 Astros might end up playing more games than the 2020 team.
Funny or pathetic? You decide.
We know every MLB season is filled with teams that get hot for a couple weeks in May, then keep fading hard in July, August and September. And that there’s almost always one club that fires out of the March/April gate, then is selling by the time the trade deadline appears.
Teams normally play about 30 spring training games. Which means playing at least 81 regularseason games is a necessity in 2020 if MLB wants to have anything close to a “normal” season.
Speaking of … what’s the point of a trade deadline in a theoretical 50game season? About 85 percent of MLB will be buyers, because nearly everyone will still have a shot to make the playoffs by the time the last two weeks of the second month of the season are in sight.
I want to write that MLB must be smarter than this. That if the NFL can keep doing its almighty thing, the NBA can keep owners and players pushing toward a common goal, and multiple other leagues can either plan or finalize a sensible return, there’s no reason baseball can’t find a way back to the field.
But baseball keeps being baseball, and we’re stuck waiting on a magical breakthrough almost a month after negotiations began.
The best part? Both sides appear to agree on expanding the postseason, which means the 2020 season is already guaranteed to be watered down, if it ever happens.
I’ve always believed the owners and players will ultimately reach a seasonsaving compromise. But the longer this goes on and the more the stench reeks, the more selfish and clueless the billionaires and millionaires appear.
An international pandemic. Staggering unemployment numbers. Peaceful protests, looting and mounting frustration on all sides across America.
All MLB has to do is reach an agreement to play baseball.
Instead, baseball is blowing another perfect opportunity.