The biggest obstacle MLB players, owners face is themselves
Major League Baseball better hurry if it’s going to start the season the first week of July. With the current infighting between owners and players over compensation, the proposed scheduling now appears to be a pipe dream. As owners worry about being down to their last billion, the players are bearing most of the blame. Not surprising. Unlike owners, players are public figures, making them easier targets.
Money trouble: By beseeching players to stop arguing over filthy lucre and get back to work, Alex Rodriguez isn’t winning any friends among the rank and file. It’s not a good look when someone who made around $450 million in his career is telling today’s players not to sweat the Benjamins.
Real life: According to a report I saw, in order to get under way, MLB will need 10,000 coronavirus test kits per week. The NBA and college and pro football will need their own tractor-trailer loads. Isn’t it worth wondering how many of the kits sought by sports enterprises could be put to use for the average working man and woman?
Coming attraction: By holding a virtual World Series ring ceremony at
7 p.m. Sunday on MASN — after receiving their rings in the mail, players will open them for the first time during a televised Zoom session — the Nationals are signaling that they have their doubts that fans will be in the park anytime this season.
Blather, Inc.: In the wake of “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s talking heads launched a spurious debate over whether today’s top NBA players could have thrived during the ’80s and ’90s. Are they kidding? Michael Jordan’s acolytes are coming at this from the wrong direction. Regardless of style of play or rule interpretations, today’s supremely gifted, fit stars unquestionably would have excelled 30 or 40 years ago, just as Jordan and the best of his peers could have dominated the previous era. The premise of the debate is absurd.
Quick hit: Somebody please tell me when the genuflecting to Jordan has run its course. It’s embarrassing.
Update: Korean baseball broadcasts seemed like an amusing diversion a week or so ago. But in my household, the fad has run its course. Just can’t relate.
Futbol: Germany’s top soccer league resumed play over the weekend, with games beamed to the U.S. And while the players performed before empty houses, for the TV viewer, the usual soccer rules applied — leave the room for a second and somebody finally scores.
Scaling back: Obviously, Americans are hungry for the return of live sports. But isn’t it likely that many people are discovering that they can do without so much of it?
Pocket change: Wouldn’t it be great to have so much money that you can blow $900,000 at an auction on a signed Mike Trout rookie card? Somebody just did, paying the highest price ever for a modern baseball card.
A diversion: Peyton Manning is the most naturally amusing, jock-turnedTV personality this side of Charles Barkley. Don’t know about his golf game, but Manning’s droll jibes are something to look forward to as he partners with Tiger Woods against Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson in Sunday’s made-forTV charity event for COVID-19 relief. As a bonus, Barkley will be on the TNT broadcast.