Superhero movies and RIP Joel Schumacher: WFNY Staff Chat
June 23, 2020Sports difficulty ranking: WFNY Staff Chat
June 24, 2020After a stretch of days that will last longer than the season will actually encompass, we are primed and ready for the 2020 baseball season to kick off no later than one month from today. The time “away” did nothing but hurt both sides of the labor agreement finalized last night, as the public quarreling between MLB and the MLBPA simply seemed to agitate whatever fans of the sport were left. Owners that are used to lining insides of pockets with hundreds now might actually have to take some out to cover losses from having probably no fans inside stadiums and the fewest games played in a complete season since 1945.1 How much money the owners stand to lose from the 2020 season is unknown because we will never see into their books regardless of the outcome from the grievance the MLBPA puts forth, but ownership crying poor when every owner has control of a billion-dollar asset is detestable.
The players don’t look any better than the owners except for the fact that they are the “little guy” being squashed down by big management. The tribalism of America where brand is king and Pepsi vs Coke is a hard-fought line in the sand for some is breaking a bit and rather than fans taking the organization’s side regardless of the situation in some kind of hope that they would be seen as a super-fan by people that don’t usually see the individual, sincere sentiment is starting to be paid toward the “working man” rather than say Jeff Bezos, or in this case, the “working men” are actually grown men who are getting paid millions of dollars to play a game for their livelihoods.
It’s important to know your worth in this world, and the players identify that their worth is exorbitant and don’t and didn’t want to be paid less than that. But, arguing over millions of dollars while families are falling apart across the nation due to the pandemic and unemployment and the literal loss of life… it rings hollow to those that would be filling the seats if it weren’t for a virus that has ravaged so many already.
Irreparable damage has been done to the sport I love because two sides were fighting over money when we as a nation have been striving so hard to show that simply being kind to one another is more vitally important than anything else. Baseball is back, and I will watch in a month when Opening Day 2 comes around and Shane Bieber is slicing through batters, when Francisco Lindor is making everyone smile again,2 when Jose Ramirez is banging doubles off of outfield walls, and Carlos Santana is patiently taking walks instead of trying for a home run.
But, will I enjoy it as much as I want, as much as I did last year?
Probably not, because we lost a giant chunk of a season; not just to coronavirus, but to greed and malice and everything we need to eradicate from our nation. Let’s play ball.