Another backward step for Major League Baseball

Spring training games have already been canceled, what is next, the beginning of the season?

If there were ever two sides that are tone deaf it is Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the two sides expired on Dec. 1.

The owners decided to lock out the players as soon as that agreement expired.

The players said that a lockout was unnecessary, but the owners had one point. What if there is no agreement before the playoffs were to begin. The players could strike and really hit the owners where it hurts the most.

Last week MLB announced that the spring training schedule has been postponed and that games would begin no earlier than March 5.

Does anybody really think there will be spring training games during the first week of March?

It’s long been suggested that the real deadline to finalize a CBA is the end of February, possibly the first week of March not to lose any games in the regular season, which is to begin March 31.

Yet harm has already been done to the fans and to the game itself.

What about those people who make vacations around spring training?

All the fans who had spring training tickets for games beginning that had to be postponed now have to get refunded.

What’s more, baseball continues to alienate its fans and the sport simply isn’t popular enough to keep going in this wrong direction.

This is a sport that has done its best to alienate the young fans as it is.

All of the World Series games start at night and many don’t end until anywhere from 11:30 p.m to after midnight.

How is that helping lure young fans, where youngsters have to attend school the next day?

Not only that, but working adults often can’t stay up that late to see what is supposed to be baseball’s signature event.

And speaking of the negotiations, the lack of bargaining by both sides has been inexcusable.

The lockout began on Dec. 2 and the two sides didn’t come to the bargaining table for their first negotiating meeting until Jan. 13.

Where was the urgency?

There are many issues the two sides are apart on, especially luxury tax.

Again, the fans don’t care which side wins on this.

There is haggling over the minimum salary, which now stands at $570,500.

Here is a note to MLB and the MLBPA - fans aren’t going to feel sorry for players making this type of money or for owners who are able to pay these salaries.

It’s useless for either side to stage a public relations campaign.

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We’re in a world that is going on two years battling COVID-19.

Many people have lost their jobs.

Do you expect the fans to feel sorry for the players or the owners, who live lives many could only dream about.

What MLB doesn’t seem to comprehend is that many fans are losing their interest in the game. Compared to basketball, football and hockey, baseball moves too slow.

Now the sport is slow not only on the field but during negotiations.

Yes, there are fans who miss even the start of spring training games. Those are the diehards who will anxiously return to follow their favorite team and players, once this mess is settled.

Yet there will be more and more who won’t care and will drop off the baseball bandwagon.

There is no picking one side over the other from this vantage point.

Both have failed to use the entire offseason to negotiate.
Now they are at this point – a public relations disaster that each side has nobody to blame but themselves.

Author: Marc Narducci