The
government has told Major League Baseball it is an essential business in the
recovery of the United States economy in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and
helping to keep the American public entertained until we return to the status
quo. But, both MLB and the Players Association have shown just how greedy
they can be. Personally, I could care less who thinks they're on the
higher moral ground. I just want the two sides to reach an agreement
before things go farther down the crapper and result in long term damage to
delicate labor balance. There may be a 50 game season yet this year, but
then what happens next year if this doesn't get resolved.
Yesterday, the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch's baseball writer Derrick Goold wrote a Sunday column critical of
both sides of the dispute. I have copied it below and it is courtesy of
the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch.
"A
week that would have swelled with Major League Baseball welcoming waves of
players for its future via the draft and ended with the Cardinals making
history in the first National League games across the pond instead finds
America’s pastime in a precarious present, the owners and players drowning in
caustic exchanges. Proposals
and counter-proposals, points and counterpoints, punches and counterpunches
have all been leveled in the past week as the commissioner’s office and
players’ union negotiate a return from an indefinite stoppage of operations due
to the pandemic. At issue remains the players’ insistence of being paid their
full, prorated salary by game, and the owners’ rejoinder that to do so would
require a season of around 50 games, a length the commissioner can unilaterally
impose.
The
staring contest persisted — until the players soundly rejected a proposal
Saturday and dispensed with any subtlety. In a response to the owners, the
union asked to be notified by Monday if a severely shortened season would be
forced on them.
“Players
want to play,” the union said in a statement. “It unfortunately appears that
further dialogue with the league would be futile. It’s time to get back to
work. Tell us when and where.”
With the
abbreviated draft completed, the Cardinals front office and executives with 29
other teams will get back to work — and for the first time there isn’t a
lodestar event to aim for.
Baseball
is adrift for another day.
“I have
noticed and felt it myself that there’s a preparation fatigue setting in,” said
John Mozeliak, Cardinals president of baseball operations. “Every day you try
to plan for a start date that keeps moving. It’s important to keep everyone
motivated, to keep everybody ready, but there are times when it feels like
you’re rolling that rock back up the hill. Every one of us has been touched in
some way by COVID-19, and our country has been by Black Lives Matter. It may
have felt like a moment, but now it’s an important movement.
“And then
in our industry,” Mozeliak concluded, “we’re still discussing and trying to
agree on when and how will we play baseball, and what will it look like.”
As of 8
a.m. St. Louis time on Sunday, teams could begin signing eligible amateurs who
went undrafted. There is a $20,000 cap on bonuses. With that novel free-agent
frenzy as a backdrop, Mozeliak said he’ll return to Busch Stadium on Monday to
continue the preparation slog, hoping to understand better what the next “three
to four months will look like.”
More
big-league players are expected to gravitate toward St. Louis in the coming
week and join staggered, scheduled workouts at Busch. When Major League
Baseball clears teams to begin official preseason camp, the Cardinals will hold
theirs and home games at the downtown ballpark. A handful of players intend to
be already nearby.
As part of
the weekend’s blunt volleys, the union requested a time and place for players
to report. The Cardinals have been in communication with the mayor’s office to
adhere to local social distancing practices at Busch.
All clubs
have been instructed to find a facility within a 100-mile radius of their
ballpark for players on an expanded roster or taxi squad to use. The Cardinals
have received permission to expand that distance so they can contemplate using
Class AA Springfield, an affiliate the Cardinals own, and its ballpark for the
eligible players.
And then
there are minor-league prospects, with no place yet to play, no plan either.
All of
that is the fine print beneath the headlines of seething acrimony and sharp
letters between the Major League Baseball Players’ Association and the owners
that seems headed for a 2020 season that will be forced, not agreed upon.
“There is
no doubt right now there is an enormous amount of distrust on both sides, and
when we get back to playing baseball it must be everybody’s goal to rebuild
that,” Mozeliak said. “If you look on Twitter, you’re going to find that it’s
50/50 as to who is at fault, and regardless of that answer that resentment or
annoyance is not great for the game. There’s definitely a group of fans that
aren’t active (on social media) and enjoy the game and are hopeful it will
return — to have something else to watch other than Netflix. It’s the fact there
are a number of fans on each of these sides that if we can’t get this right,
there could be reason for concern.”On Friday, the owners presented a proposal
to the union for a 72-game schedule, though players’ salaries would be trimmed
to 70 percent of their prorated salary. In other words, a player making $10
million in 2020 would make $3.02 million under this proposal. Various reports
said players could earn up to 80 percent with the windfall from a completed
postseason. That proposal was rejected Saturday. Players have steadfastly
insisted that a March agreement assures a full per-game salary. A $10-million
player in a 72-game schedule would make $4.32 million.
Each
proposal from the owners has been a different way to arrive at the same amount
of spending, like cutting one apple pie into eight slices instead of into
fourths and calling it larger because eight is bigger than four. Potential
salaries have inched upward based mostly on revenue from an expanded playoff
field.
The owners
do not want the season to leak into November for two driving reasons: They
argue disease experts are saying it’s best to “get in, get out” of a season
before a possible second wave of the coronavirus. And, perhaps chiefly, the
real profits this year are in the postseason and baseball’s broadcast partners
don’t want rescheduled playoff games for November. Why compete with a
presidential election for ratings? Commissioner Rob Manfred said during
televised draft coverage on MLB Network that he would prefer a “negotiated”
schedule, but he has the right and power to force one on the players under the
auspices of the health of the game. It is expected to be around 48 games to
meet the players’ demand of full prorated salaries. If Manfred does, the
union’s statement Saturday implies the players, who have little recourse at
that point, will report.
There have
been five formal proposals exchanged between the two sides. At first, the sides
appeared to be circling at the extremes and defining where they would meet in
the middle. Instead of creeping closer, this weekend’s exchange revealed
fortified encampments, not movement. Verbal mud pies ensued. The Athletic
quoted a letter from the union’s lead negotiator that said, “We assume these
negotiations are at an end.”
In recent
weeks several owners, including Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and Cubs
chairman Tom Ricketts, made public comments about a billion-dollar industry’s
financial problems that drew ire for the timing — and social-media sarcasm from
players. Former MVP Andrew McCutchen posted a video where he likened the owners
approach to a parent offering juice to a potty-training child and then
switching the reward to water, but in a bigger cup. The Athletic and ESPN both
quoted from a letter leaked to them that was sent originally from MLB to the
union. In it the deputy commissioner writes the union’s “failure to act in good
faith has caused enormous damage to the sport.” Meanwhile, the New York Post
reported Saturday that baseball has a new billion-dollar rights deal with TBS
for playoff games. Delightful timing.
And to
think the Cardinals expected to be hosting the Cubs this weekend in jolly old
England.
Blimey.
Jack Flaherty, the
Cardinals’ opening day starter (whenever that is), is one of the players who
has increased the volume of his criticism on social media, and he greeted
Friday’s proposal on Twitter with a video clip of someone taking out the
garbage. On Saturday evening, he posted a video of a player pantomiming
pointing to his watch. Other players’ commentary has been just as pointed. Both
sides have left bruises, and it’s unclear what a forced season will do to labor
relations. Part of that perpetual preparation now becomes how to salve the
bitterness.
“There is
going to be some lingering effects, and when the game is open or I’m able to be
back around players more often, I’m going to have to be cognizant of what the
past two months have been like from a player standpoint,” Mozeliak said. “I do
hope that 25 years and time spent with this organization helps me, but we do
have to move forward and realize we have to do that together. … Whether we play
48 games or 72 games, you just hope we play a game, because playing games will
help a lot of people.”
The
“preparation fatigue” he mentioned seeping through baseball offices has a
similar, riskier relative that can disillusion even the most ardent fanbase the
longer these public squabbles persist. It’s when anticipation is replaced by
frustration and then apathy.
Fans are
tired of hearing how the sausage is made. They just want to enjoy a
hot dog — with a game on."
