Just when you thought things couldn’t get any uglier.
After 10 weeks of little to no progress in a labor dispute on the resumption of play between Major League Baseball’s owners and players, the proverbial line in the sand has been drawn.
On Saturday night, the MLB Players Association informed the owners that it would not be conducting any further negotiations with the owners, and demanded that the owners inform the players by today about when and where games will be played in an abbreviated season.
It caps off a two-and-a-half month-long standoff during which billionaire owners and millionaire players squabbled over how much pay the players would get for a shortened season.
And while there will certainly be some form of shortened season at this point — MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has the power to force it, after all — none of the involved parties come out of this looking any better, especially to the average fan.
How did we get to this point? Here’s a little timeline.
On March 12, spring training was suspended and Opening Day was postponed indefinitely as the COVID-19 pandemic really took root in the U.S. Two weeks later, on March 26, the owners and players struck a deal in which the players agreed to pro-rata salaries based on how many games were to be played, and owners agreed to advance a total of $170 million to players, and the players received a full year of service time on their contracts.
However, the dispute emerged over a single line from the agreement that said the two sides would “discuss in good faith the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators.”
That still remains the crux of it all after almost three months. Owners complain they’ll lose money paying out full pro-rata salaries if fans aren’t in attendance, while the players say they shouldn’t have to take any more pay cuts.
The two sides have bounced offers and counter-offers regarding season length and pay back and forth like a ping-pong match, but neither party was willing to budge. Players wanted as lengthy a season as possible with no further cuts, while owners wanted players to agree to cuts in their salary (and season length) if fans weren’t present.
Ten weeks later, here we are without baseball (for now) and with plenty of blame to go around. The billionaire owners and millionaire players all come out looking greedy for bickering over money, an image that the average fan won’t care for.
And perhaps the biggest issue comes back to that aforementioned average fan, and what a missed opportunity this whole summer has been to draw more of those in.
With the exception of NASCAR, which has done really well for itself, sports fans everywhere have gone without any competitive professional events in the U.S. Typically at this time of the year, baseball would be up against the NBA and NHL playoffs — some stiff competition.
But this year presented a unique opportunity, as neither of those were able to take place as scheduled. Simply put, baseball’s only summer competition outside of weekend NASCAR races was eliminated altogether.
For a game that’s constantly bemoaning how it needs to start attracting more fans and wider audiences, this was as good of a chance as it could’ve gotten. Instead, it comes out looking even worse than before.
That doesn’t bode well for when the presumptive restart happens, because it’s likely to collide with the NHL and NBA restarts. And with those two beginning their postseasons at that point, the average sports fan will be way more invested in basketball and hockey, rather than baseball.
The other issue is the hard feelings left from all of this. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported Sunday that things could get even uglier, up to the point that many players decide to simply sit out the abbreviated 2020 season altogether. It just spells trouble for a sport already needing to create a better image for itself.
Oh, and speaking of those bad feelings in labor agreements, don’t forget the current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of next year, too.
(Joel Whetzel, a Bradford Era sportswriter, can be reached at jwhetzel@bradfordera.com.)
