Art’s World – Has Baseball Buried Itself?

This whole lockout business could have easily been avoided, had the owners had some compassion for their employees (the players) and the fans that have supported them. But after the 2019 season concluded and knowing the CBA was coming in two years and would be contentious, they did nothing to try and start working on solutions. Then along came COVID and with stops and starts they got pushed into a rushed, abbreviated 60 game season and the players and their union did not forget. Then in 2021 there were all the COVID protocols in place, smaller crowds, Toronto having to play ¾ of their season in Dunedin and Buffalo because of Canada’s COVID rules. There was the stupid knee jerk reaction to pull the All Star game from Atlanta and move it to Denver. It was two years that made the players more upset, made fans upset and behind it all was the head clown, oops I mean commissioner, Rob Manfred, and he was far from done.

With everything going on in the world in 2020 and 2021 Manfred then decided to do two of the worst things he could for baseball. First, he did away with 42 minor league teams, revamped the entire minor league system and basically gave these minor league towns, many with pro baseball for 100 years, the big finger. He took away revenue they depended on, jobs were lost and stadiums, some just renovated for millions, now sat empty. Then he instituted several dumb rules as if he was running a Little League rather than a major league. He continued to prove his hate for the game and it continues to this day. Remember this is the clown who referred to the World Series trophy as “a piece of metal”.

Yet, with all that did the owners, knowing the CBA was coming up, bother to try and get to work together long before the CBA needed to be renewed in December 2021. No, they just sat idly by, Manfred did nothing to get them to work on differences and on December 3^rd the owners officially locked out the players and we have been at a standstill since. But did the owners or Manfred then try to call the union to get things done. No, they waited six weeks before making any kind of move and again the so called commissioner sat idly by. Did the players union bother to call MLB and offer the same thing? The answer is NO on both counts. So because of this stubbornness on both sides we are where we are with one month of the spring training season gone, games lost and also the first week or so of the regular MLB season cancelled. Who is hurting the most by all this? It certainly isn’t the owners, that’s for sure. To them April, for a variety of reasons, is a lost month anyway so they really don’t care.

It is the cities and towns that host spring training and the loss of revenue that helps these cities throughout the year. It is the part time and extra jobs that people have at the ballparks to make some much needed extra income in this day of rising costs for everything. It is the charity organizations that run the concessions and lose thousands of dollars that would benefit those in need.  It is the fans who eagerly look forward to attending spring training games, plan vacations to spring training and help the economy by spending their hard earned cash in the cities where spring training is held and that amounts to hundreds of millions. And it is the players, especially the rookies hoping to make it to the show and leave the minors behind, along with the veterans trying make a comeback after injuries.

People say this is billionaires fighting millionaires and that is totally wrong. It is employer versus worker plain and simple. The player’s union is like any other union in the country, fighting for what is best for their members. Keep in mind 72% of the ML players make less than one million a year. When you have 30 owners who refuse to budge and not wanting to give up a slice of the financial pie to those they employ you have a stalemate as we have had since this lockout began 3 months ago. Trust me, there is fault on both sides in this impasse, but the majority of the problems fall on the owners, not the players. Through it all, the only person that has made this worse has been Rob Manfred the bone headed commissioner of MLB. I have contended for several years that this man has no love for the game, has no understanding of the game and has continually found ways to ruin the game. Yes, he works for the owners, but even a few of them are beginning to tire of his incessant ignorance of the game and what needs to be done to fix it. Has he been at all these meetings trying to get it worked out? No, he only showed up about a week or so ago and then immediately issued threats to the player’s union. If Manfred really wanted to put an end to this whole mess he could very easily, but as he has shown repeatedly, he hasn’t got the balls to do it.

Now here we are on March 9 and very little has been solved or taken care of. Oh there were concessions by the players regarding the shift, pitching time clock and larger bases, all of which are Manfred ideas of course. He has canceled the first two series of the regular season, doing this right after he had promised, “The concerns of our fans are at the very top of our consideration list.”, and doing it with a big grin on his face. It was an out and out lie as he continues to ruin the game. Players are fed up, fans are fed up, advertisers are fed up and it just becomes more and more obvious that this clown has absolutely no business being commissioner.

Fans remember the previous lockouts and strikes. But at a time like this, after all this country has been through the past couple of years and going through now, a lockout, loss of games, jobs, revenue and a seemingly “don’t care” attitude by the owners, fans have had enough. Oh there will be the diehards who will show up because of their love for the game and there will be those will forgive and forget. But make no mistake, if and when play resumes, the loss of fans and revenue in MLB will be felt more than ever before. TV ratings will go down, merchandise sales will suffer, the young people baseball has said it wants to get back will turn away and the trickle down effects will be huge.

On the other hand, the ones who should benefit from this in big numbers are the cities and towns that have minor league baseball. I think people will be eager to support their minor league teams at every level and spend their money at those ballparks instead. You just might see attendance records set in the minor leagues, not to mention it is also a much cheaper option.

As for me personally, I have been a fan and both in and around this game since the 1940’s and consider myself a baseball junkie. I love every facet of the game, writing about it, seeing games in dozens of ballparks around the country and Japan, rooting for the Rays, collecting memorabilia, being in Fantasy leagues and watching on TV when it can’t be in person. But for the first time, that has changed thanks to this unnecessary lockout that has dragged on with no regard for the fan. I may still follow the game and the Rays but it will be from a distance…….enough is enough. If the owners really care about the fans (insert joke and punch line here) they will show it by lowering prices, having special deals, plenty of giveaways and much more fan friendly options. Then most important of all, if owners want to save the game, unload Manfred (there are a few who have had it with him). This lame excuse for a commissioner has totally ruined the game, both on and off the field, that we all love. Will we hear “play ball”……………….maybe one day.

Art Koch, National Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves Magazine and AAN