MLB is making a string of errors
Sport needs to get its act together
Baseball long has been therapeutic for those who love it. Dumped by a girl in your younger days? Perhaps you blew off steam by hitting off a backyard tee or chucking a ball against a cement wall. Baseball’s inherent romance connects parents and children through the simple act of playing catch, something that’s inexplicably different than tackling drills or firing jump shots at a local park.
That’s why I’m rooting for baseball to get its priorities straight, realize what it always has been and also what it can become during the COVID-19 pandemic — a source of hope and entertainment and something that snaps us out of this collective funk.
The issues being discussed right now by players, owners and league officials are obviously important. Whether it’s the logistics of how to play a season, player compensation or the draft, these are issues that should absolutely be addressed and taken seriously.
In private.
One of the things that has been remarkable to watch here has been the differences in how MLB, the NHL and NBA conduct themselves from a media perspective, baseball on a daily basis leaking what seems like every little discussion via sources, while the others have stayed mostly quiet.
Baseball has spent the past few weeks floating return-to-play plans that include Arizona; Arizona and Florida; Arizona, Florida and Texas; a variety of hub plans; and the latest, one involving home cities and realigned divisions. We’ve heard about prorated salaries and the possibility of reducing them more. Non-playing employees have been furloughed in other markets. Some have taken pay cuts (or had their pay cut), and the Pirates suspended their 401(k) matching program. We’ve freaked out over the minor leagues, the draft, ballpark workers and service time. “Sources” have communicated feelings on the possibility of restarting, when that might happen, how long a ramp-up might take and where it all might occur. The reality is nobody knows.
And that goes for the families of those involved, spouses and children who’ve become experts in seeing some sort of possibility floated, reacting to it, then 48 hours later repeating the entire process when another consideration becomes public.
Baseball’s public splattering of information or discussions that should stay behind closed doors has had a couple of side effects, and none of them are good.
One, the clock is ticking. Every day that we sit here and haggle over the minutiae of a return is one where players could’ve been readying themselves for spring. Every day is one less spent in the national spotlight — or at least preparing to seize it.
That’s not to say players should accept minimum wage or that the draft is unimportant. It’s more that the two sides should negotiate in good faith and behind closed doors because, frankly, I doubt the average American wants to hear about some of the material being discussed.
Not when more than 30 million people have filed for unemployment since midMarch, COVID-19 has claimed more lives than the Vietnam War or food bank lines continue to grow longer and longer.
None of that is baseball’s fault, obviously. And I’m not suggesting that commissioner Rob Manfred or Tony Clark, executive director of the MLB Players Association, should start treating patients, passing out food or developing a vaccine.
The point here is that baseball’s role should be akin to what the sports department does for a newspaper: It’s the toy store, the thing people turn to for a break from disaster or despair, the place where they plunk down what little time and energy they do have and hope those they idolize make them smile.
Baseball loves to celebrate its rich history and tradition, and it should. But right now it’s frittering away the chance to make more because the sport would seemingly rather trim branches on the first few trees than look around and notice that there are acres and acres of forest behind those pines.
If neither Mike Trout nor Clayton Kershaw wants to live inside of a baseball bubble, so be it. Let others do it. Trout and Kershaw can stay home and forfeit their salaries, while MLB should devise a plan devoid of punishment for players wishing to do the same.
But anyone saying they don’t need or want the headache this would create should probably think about the inverse of that equation: Baseball (the same as any sport) also doesn’t need you. If you think about it, doing what’s best for the greater good should frame every discussion around this situation — from baseball to money to public health.
Speaking of health, it also makes little
sense why baseball has pivoted to a stay-at-home plan when Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, actually breathed some hope into sports returning by saying it had to happen a certain way — with no fans and everyone quarantining together.
What should happen here is simple: Get in a room with Dr. Fauci and America’s best infectious disease doctors, ask them what must be done for baseball to restart and do absolutely everything possible to replicate that plan.
If that upsets some people along the way, too bad. You’ll never make everyone happy. Find a way to do it safely, figure out the rest behind closed doors and let us know when you’re done.
Above all, please don’t create an ugly back-and-forth when both sides come off as bitter and tone deaf to the rest of the world. This isn’t the time.
Want baseball to become more of a mainstream thing and accessible to a younger generation? Look at what the NFL draft and
ESPN’s “The Last Dance” have done numbers-wise. People are thirsty for sports.
The floor is yours, baseball. Don’t screw this up.