Bickering is ruining baseball
Owners, players need to sacrifice
COVID-19 will not stop the 2021 baseball season. Will there be virus outbreaks? Certainly. Will games be postponed and rescheduled? Absolutely. But MLB, like the NFL has done and the NHL and college basketball are doing, will forge ahead, finish the season and crown a champion.
But the 2022 season? MLB will face a much bigger challenge than COVID19. The season almost certainly will be interrupted and perhaps even doomed by something much more insidious:
The toxic relationship between the owners and players.
The two sides deserve each other and everything bad that might happen to their beautiful sport.
“Pitchers and catchers report” used to be the four best words in sports. Now, they make me want to cry. Spring training doesn’t start for two weeks, and I’m already sick of baseball. That has nothing to do with the fact the Pirates will be the worst team again, even though that reality is painful. It has everything to do with the constant bickering between the owners and players. It’s almost as if they are trying to destroy the game. They did the same thing last summer before finally and reluctantly agreeing on a 60-game season that somehow made it to the finish line despite the many hurdles caused by the virus, with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the World Series.
With baseball’s collective bargaining agreement up after this season and nothing in common between the two sides but hatred and distrust, it seems like the owners and players might just ruin the sport.
I don’t remember it ever being this bad.
Maybe that seems crazy. MLB shut down in August 1994 and didn’t have a postseason that year, including no World Series for the first time since 1904. The NHL shut down and missed the entire 2004-05 season. But it seems so much worse now because of the pandemic. These are brutal times for everybody. This is when the owners and players should be working together to help their sport survive instead of fighting over everything up to and probably including what day of the week it is.
The bickering is so unseemly and so unconscionable.
Talk about being oblivious to what is going on in the world.
Talk about being so selfabsorbed.
The owners wanted to delay the start of spring training this season by a month to give health officials a better chance of getting the virus under control. Cactus League officials have said they don’t want the teams in Arizona in two weeks. Arizona has the highest COVID -19 rates in the country.
The players rejected that plan, which also included a 156-game season starting April 29. They did so even though the owners agreed to pay them for a full 162-game season. Clearly, they don’t trust Rob Manfred’s word. They fear the commissioner will cancel games and shorten the season even more if the impact of the virus worsens. That could mean lost wages and service time considerations.
So, spring training will start Feb. 17, as originally scheduled. COVID-19 be damned. The players also have refused to agree to an expanded playoff field and the universal designated hitter, even though those changes would benefit both sides and were popular among fans last season. The players don’t want to give up anything that would help the owners without getting something back in return. They don’t believe the owners will spend the extra money on player salaries. Nearly 150 free agents remain unsigned with the owners crying poor because of the pandemic. The players aren’t buying that argument.
Even worse, the players didn’t make any counteroffer to the owners in an attempt to find common ground. They insist on sticking to the terms of the CBA despite the impact of COVID-19. They have that right contractually.
Good luck to the two sides trying to work out that new CBA.
Both the owners and players put out public statements Monday defending their position. I had to laugh at the pomposity of both statements, especially the one from MLB:
“Our 2020 season taught us that when the nation faces crisis, the national game is as important as ever, and there is nothing better than playing ball. We were able to complete a 2020 season though Herculean efforts and sacrifices made by our players, Club staff and MLB staff to protect one another. We will do so again, together, as we work towards playing another safe and entertaining season in 2021.”
Two things struck me about that:
One, baseball no longer is the national pastime and hasn’t been for years. It has become more of a turn-off than a pleasant night at the ballpark. That’s why it is struggling to attract a younger audience.
And two, the owners and players will do nothing together. Absolutely nothing.
Shame on both sides.