Optics are not everything, but in the case of major league baseball it certainly is damaging. By their actions on a number of fronts you would think MLB owners are trying their best to gut baseball. Fortunately, there are other leagues in Japan, Korea and Taiwan that are doing their best to keep baseball thriving.
The first act owners have done to make myworld suspicious about their love of baseball more than their pocket book is by attempting to take more control of the minor leagues. Many minor league teams were doing quite well running baseball clubs. Major league owners could not help but notice that and wanted a piece of the action. The suit by minor league players complaining about the paltry sum they were getting paid by major league baseball was an excuse the owners used to take control of the minor leagues because they “wanted to see the minor league players paid more”. The pandemic seems to have destroyed the minor leagues and given the owners the opportunity to take control of the process as they had hoped. Less communities will now see minor league baseball in their town. Owners have made promises of a Dream League, but at this point myworld sees just empty promises.
The next action the owners took to show their greed is to reduce the major league draft to just five rounds. Any player not drafted could be signed by any major league team, but not for more than $20,000. What a bargain. That seems to run counter to their goal of paying minor leaguers more. It also busted a lot of young players dreams of becoming professional baseball players. Now you have to wonder where in the popularity spectrum baseball will be for youth who choose a sport to play. The owners of MLB are doing a good job of making their sport the fourth most popular in the United States among the youth of America.
The third action was the negotiation process with the players. It was obvious to myworld that the owners were not making any serious effort to offer the players a deal because a) they were not interested in having a season in 2020 or b) they were trying to stall so that they could play as few games as possible. The players called their bluff and said “When and Where” and the owners are still stalling because they do not want to play, unlike all the other professional leagues that appear to have no problem playing without fans or minimal fans. The NBP will start their opening games on June 19 with no fans. There has been no public spat about money.
Good luck after the 2021 season when the new collective bargaining agreement has to be negotiated. Myworld has not seen so much hate among players to the owners since the many work stoppages that occurred a couple decades ago. The peace has been broken. Rob Manfred does not seem to be doing a very good job of keeping the ship sailing towards those peaceful seas, but more so moving it back to the harbor of two decades ago where work stoppages were common as the owners attempted to break the union. My hope is that the owners who do not want a season in 2020 attempt to sell their clubs so we can get new owners who truly enjoy baseball. And get a new commissioner who can move baseball in the right direction.
The owners claim it is impossible to make a profit in the baseball business but to date no owner has been willing to open their books to prove that statement true. My response to them is “Open the Books.” My bet is that no owner will agree to do so. It is a pandora’s box that will expose the lies.
So at this point myworld will only be reporting on baseball in countries that love to play the game. That appears not to be the case in the United States. They only love to play the game if they can shower their pockets with money.
That is my rant for the day. It felt pretty good to let it out.