Baseball's billionaire owners don't give a damn about the fans
It's clear that baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn't care about the diehard fans, let alone the casual ones, as the owners this week failed to make any bold moves designed to give the players an incentive to end the lockout.
Not that the players are blameless in this latest labor discord that has already canceled the first three weeks of spring training, Opening Day and the first two series of the 2022 season. They flat out rejected federal mediation and the offer of assistance from former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, now the labor secretary, to help reach some common ground with the owners, and they rejected a minimum salary of $700,000.
But let there be no mistake about it: The owners bear 90 percent of the responsibility for this debacle.
From the moment they locked out the players Dec. 2 after the previous CBA (collective-bargaining agreement) expired, they've made their utter contempt for the players --- and the fans --- clear. They also waited forever to start engaging the players in talks, and now, thanks to their stooge of a commissioner's ineffective leadership, it's highly possible that there will be a severely curtailed baseball season, if there's one at all.
Coming after the 60-game regular season due to COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, and last year's season, which was affected all year by COVID, this really stinks --- and angers long-suffering baseball fans.
To use the famous line from the movie "Network," baseball fans are "mad as hell" and we're not going to take it anymore. We pay high cable rates to watch our teams --- not to mention astronomical prices for tickets, concessions and parking at ancient stadiums such as Fenway Park.
The owners' tone-deaf behavior --- they didn't even engage the players in "negotiations" until more than 40 days into the lockout --- has been evident from the start of this labor unrest; there weren't regular talks until the week of Feb. 21, when both sides met daily in Florida.
My message to both the owners --- who, like Boston Red Sox owner John Henry seem to have so many non-baseball revenue streams pouring in that they're acting as if it'd be no big deal to miss the entire season --- and the players is to start thinking about how bad this all looks coming at a time when the bulk of fans' budgets are taking a huge beating due to record-high inflation.
Both sides also should realize that the longer they bicker, the more fans will forget about baseball and even give up on what's becoming a dying sport with mainstream fans.
And I say that as a lifelong fan for whom baseball remains my No. 1 passion.
As an old fogey (69) fan who still cherishes the 1967 and 1975 Red Sox seasons, that puts me in the minority, because right now, most of America's sports fans have already given up on baseball.
Most of the talk on the daily sports radio shows is about the New England Patriots' off-season, the draft, the scouting combine, Tom Brady's "retirement" (will he or won't he return) and the Celtics and Bruins, both of whom are making strong runs to the playoffs in the NBA and NHL, respectively.
People are learning to live without baseball, and if we don't have a 2022 season to worry about, we'll be OK.
Which brings me to my parting message to Manfred and the avaricious owners he supports: Stay away from the talks all you want --- no one cares!
Not that the players are blameless in this latest labor discord that has already canceled the first three weeks of spring training, Opening Day and the first two series of the 2022 season. They flat out rejected federal mediation and the offer of assistance from former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, now the labor secretary, to help reach some common ground with the owners, and they rejected a minimum salary of $700,000.
But let there be no mistake about it: The owners bear 90 percent of the responsibility for this debacle.
From the moment they locked out the players Dec. 2 after the previous CBA (collective-bargaining agreement) expired, they've made their utter contempt for the players --- and the fans --- clear. They also waited forever to start engaging the players in talks, and now, thanks to their stooge of a commissioner's ineffective leadership, it's highly possible that there will be a severely curtailed baseball season, if there's one at all.
Coming after the 60-game regular season due to COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, and last year's season, which was affected all year by COVID, this really stinks --- and angers long-suffering baseball fans.
To use the famous line from the movie "Network," baseball fans are "mad as hell" and we're not going to take it anymore. We pay high cable rates to watch our teams --- not to mention astronomical prices for tickets, concessions and parking at ancient stadiums such as Fenway Park.
The owners' tone-deaf behavior --- they didn't even engage the players in "negotiations" until more than 40 days into the lockout --- has been evident from the start of this labor unrest; there weren't regular talks until the week of Feb. 21, when both sides met daily in Florida.
My message to both the owners --- who, like Boston Red Sox owner John Henry seem to have so many non-baseball revenue streams pouring in that they're acting as if it'd be no big deal to miss the entire season --- and the players is to start thinking about how bad this all looks coming at a time when the bulk of fans' budgets are taking a huge beating due to record-high inflation.
Both sides also should realize that the longer they bicker, the more fans will forget about baseball and even give up on what's becoming a dying sport with mainstream fans.
And I say that as a lifelong fan for whom baseball remains my No. 1 passion.
As an old fogey (69) fan who still cherishes the 1967 and 1975 Red Sox seasons, that puts me in the minority, because right now, most of America's sports fans have already given up on baseball.
Most of the talk on the daily sports radio shows is about the New England Patriots' off-season, the draft, the scouting combine, Tom Brady's "retirement" (will he or won't he return) and the Celtics and Bruins, both of whom are making strong runs to the playoffs in the NBA and NHL, respectively.
People are learning to live without baseball, and if we don't have a 2022 season to worry about, we'll be OK.
Which brings me to my parting message to Manfred and the avaricious owners he supports: Stay away from the talks all you want --- no one cares!
Baseball was dying before this latest brouhaha, and if your greed allows the entire season to be canceled, the sport will be dead, or if you're lucky, in need of a life-saving transfusion.
And this time, unlike what former Commissioner Bud Selig did after the 1994-95 lockout --- look the other way while steroids fueled what proved to be drug-induced home run race in 1998 between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire --- there will be no cure for what your greed has wrought.
And this time, unlike what former Commissioner Bud Selig did after the 1994-95 lockout --- look the other way while steroids fueled what proved to be drug-induced home run race in 1998 between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire --- there will be no cure for what your greed has wrought.
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