Hey baseball,
Long-time admirer, first-time public complainer here.
I let a lot of things you do slide.
I made peace with the silly pace of play rules. I'll suck it up and buy a $10 beer at a game. Heck, I've even started to embrace the eventuality of the designated hitter coming to the National League.
Gross.
But now, when the game is in crisis, the owners and commissioner Rob Manfred are digging in, showing that money is really all that matters. And players are publicly shaming them on social media.
What are we doing here?
Listen, nobody thought this was going to be easy, so a little leeway was necessary. We're in unprecedented times. But the COVID-19 pandemic has really shown just how great a divide there is in baseball, and how little anyone appears to care about actually playing the game.
Baseball's inability to come together on a plan for 2020 could not just impact this year. It could damage the sport and how it is perceived for years to come.
Not a single person in America right now cares about the financial problems of millionaires and billionaires who can't come to an agreement on how to start their season. In case you haven't watched the news or picked up a paper, we have some other things to take care of in our country right now.
But the owners' tone-deafness and the union's seeming lack of engagement over the years has brought us to this point. It's one of the lowest moments in baseball in my lifetime, maybe ever.
It's just been one eye-roll moment after the next as these two stubborn sides "work" on a return to play plan.
- The owners and players agree to prorated salaries in these unprecedented times. Hey, good!
- The owners cut down pay more and offer fewer and fewer games.
- The players say no.
- The owners come back with offers that on the surface look different, but are pretty much the same thing over and over again.
- The players call them out over and over again.
- Teams stop paying minor leaguers.
- The billionaire owner of my hometown team who has seen his franchise grow exponentially in value since he bought it in the late '90s says baseball "isn't very profitable, to be honest."
- The players decide they're not getting anywhere and just tell Manfred to impose a season and tell them when and where to report.
- Manfred, after continually saying he's sure there will be a season, comes out and says publicly it doesn't look like there's a way forward.
Make it stop, please. I'm so tired. As ESPN's Buster Olney perfectly put it in his column the other day, "shortsighted greed is tearing baseball apart".
Now, on Wednesday, there is finally the faintest new light of hope. Union head Tony Clark and Manfred have sat down and worked out a new framework for a deal, together. And that new deal reportedly would pay the players 100% of the prorated salary they agreed to previously before the back and forth mudslinging started.
Is it a done deal? Of course not. Who knows what could happen to throw another wrench in the plans?
But hopefully, both Manfred and Clark realize the moment here. If they can't get this thing done, they should both be seeking new employment.
Just about every other sports league in the world has come up with a plan to eventually begin play. It's embarrassing baseball is so far behind.
Unlike in the '90s, there is no McGwire/Sosa home run chase on the horizon to save them in a few years if they tarnish the name of the sport in 2020. The hurt they cause now could linger for years to come.
2020 hasn't been fair to anyone.
It's not fair to the players who will lose money they thought they had coming to them no matter what. It's not fair to the owners who — despite the warranted criticism they've drawn — do still have to pay the tab at the end of the day. It's not fair to all the workers who depend on a baseball season to make a living. It's not fair to the fans who have now endured the second-longest time between Major League games in history.
It's not fair, but it's time to stop wallowing and make the best of the situation.
Somewhere out there there's a deal to be made that satisfies both the players and the owners and brings baseball back to the fans who are craving it.
To be blunt, there's a decent chance even with a deal, a season never gets completed. That's just the facts. We're at the mercy of this virus, and it doesn't seem to be completely going away any time soon.
But all the moneymakers in baseball owe it to us to at least try. Get a plan in place and try. That's all we're asking.
Please, baseball. Just figure it out.
