ST. LOUIS — When it's on, there isn't a more beautiful sight. The scene of a packed Busch Stadium on a warm yet fitting afternoon in downtown St. Louis. It doesn't get much better than that.
When it's off, the game of baseball, most notably Major League Baseball, can look very ugly. When the bats and gloves are locked up and the politics take over. The fun of men in uniform running around a gorgeously green playing field is squeezed into submission. That's baseball right now in mid-June.
The summer of 2020 was supposed to be Jack Flaherty contending for a Cy Young award while the Cardinals aimed for a defense of the National League Central Division and another deep playoff run. It was supposed to involve Kolten Wong highlight reels, a Matt Carpenter redemption song, and the real and true Paul Goldschmidt. That's one of the true casualties of this season: Goldschmidt's second full season, his first with the pressure starting to fall off. He'll be 34 during the next full season.
This was supposed to be the latest building block in the Mike Shildt era as manager. He took a team seemingly going nowhere for three years and took them to within four wins of a World Series berth. While the front office made little upgrades in the offseason (not a profitable maneuver I guess), the Cardinals were in line to at least contend for the division title again. They had the pitching for that. But now, there's nothing. Well, there will be something eventually this year.
I do believe there will be baseball. The owners are essentially dealing loaded decks to the players, offering the same amount of money and waiting for them to bluff. But they do hold the power and once a certain date is reached, a 50 game season will most likely occur. That's what the owners want. Least amount of games with the same pay for players they planned out weeks ago. All the players can do is say no and go on strike.
And then everything gets very interesting. The CBA talks in a year come early and hit harder. The fans would come back after a strike but not right away. You don't have the attention span of the mid-90's to sell a redemption trail on. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa won't give people a sequel of their 1998 home run chase, which gets chronicled this weekend on ESPN with A.J. Schnack's 30 for 30 documentary, "Long, Lost Summer."
Mac and Sosa aren't going to bring people back to the ballpark this time. Lovers of the sport made that transaction back in 1998 without even knowing at the time what they were seeing wasn't exactly legit. Both men used performance-enhancing drugs, which allowed them to both hit over 60 home runs that season. Some would trade that back for the sanctity of the game, but I wouldn't. They rescued baseball and restored its future, ensuring fans would get something exciting. That's a conversation for another article, though.
What I'm getting at is that if baseball messes up these labor talks for a shortened season, they can potentially rupture the future of the game. There's no home run record chase to lean on this time. Baseball doesn't even properly market its finest talent in Mike Trout. What happens after a potential stoppage or long delay?
How does it look if the NHL and NBA get back on the field, but Major League Baseball does not? I can tell you easily. It looks very bad.
Here's the thing. I'm starting to not care if the game comes back at all this year. Call it a pandemic-swirl of priorities or newly-opened eyes to the way things are and could be in a year but I am simply not living and dying on a return date. I was a month ago, possibly even weeks ago. Right now, though, it seems like every day presents a roadblock, one that looks different than the one that was plopped down in the path yesterday.
If owners and players can't figure it out, the fans pay the price. More than that, the stadium workers, while employed by a third party, suffer greatly. They were already cementing the fact that their jobs wouldn't return this year, but what if next year is in danger too?
It's just the latest 2020 gutshot, one that is bruising daily. Maybe this was just a long-winded rant about a game I love eternally but am starting to hate more each day. I think I was getting at something in the first 400 words. Believe me. Perhaps I am just a columnist who is getting used to not having baseball games to write about and analyze. I can only give my take on people with a lot more money than me fighting over how much is okay to return to work.
Enough is enough. Baseball will return in 2020, I'd bet. But the interest may not be the same as it was in March.
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