The love of sport — when you pull back to contemplate — is an odd duck. So much passion and devotion from humans for just a game. But this love has been around for thousands of years, the only ebb and flow being what contests capture the fascination and hearts at any given era.
Once dubbed, “America’s Pastime” baseball might have peaked. Which would be a shame because it’s a beauty to behold. Being able to hit a professionally pitched baseball is still the hardest thing to do in any game. And for those of us that are besotted, there is nothing like seeing a deep fly ball being run down and caught via flying leap on the warning track.
I have waxed on about my love of the game here before while at the same time discussing the fractures that have plagued the business for decades now. But 2020 — the year that perhaps will change everything — has exposed MLB’s dysfunction and stubbornness like so much dirty laundry. And, as others have voiced this week, it doesn’t have to be this way. But as it stands now, Major League’ management, the owners, and the players union still don’t seem to get it; and baseball might just go down as yet another vertical that has been ruined by capitalism’s greed.
They could have had a half season starting on the Fourth of July. What a way to make the appeal for a larger audience to tune in, eh? But a lack of an agreement has made this scenario highly unlikely. Once again, I’m trying to get my feet in the shoes of the players and ownership to understand their position; but all I still see are those that get to be involved in a kids’ game for their livelihood being short-sighted and unappreciative. And of course — this is America — this is all because of money.
Major League Baseball has the longest season of any sport in America. And as many will tell you, some as the punchline in a haters’ joke, the longest game too. Perhaps this would have felled the once titanic place in our culture anyway coupled with our speedy modern world. There has been so much sports radio and TV talk about how to “pick up the game’s pace” to appeal to younger fans.
All that talk about how to fix their problem of shrinking audiences ignores the big Baby-Ruth-sized elephant in the room however: free -agency combined with the fact that the MLB has a practically non-existent (when compared with other professional sports) revenue sharing program. Baseball is unequal between its markets/ teams and between its players compensation; and therefor between different team’s playoff prospects as well.
Decades of this fact that the teams are not playing on a level playing field (pun intended) have eroded trust between the players’ union and the ownership. This dysfunctional relationship has also cooled the love between many market team’s and their fans.
I maintain that all this talk about focusing on changing the rules of the actual game rather than focusing on the macro-money problem will eventually kill the sport. It will die as the existing fans die off because everyone is too focused on the buck to pay attention to baseball’s appeal. This is the fact that the two items that everyone complains are its weaknesses — the length of the game and the duration of the season — could actually be the key to a rebirth into popularity.
Again (redundant link), my earlier blog on this was right after my favorite team - the K.C. Royals — won the World Series. We won on a smaller budget than the behemoths that, on average, go much more often to the playoffs than KC’ because their payroll gives them that advantage. But I argue we won because of the chemistry of a team of players that grew up together in the minor league farm system. This Royals team that went to two consecutive World Series and won in 2015 did so because they were actually a tight team instead of random group of men being paid big bucks to play a boys’ sport.
The popularity of that team (now disbanded because of free agency and a lack of salary caps) drew practically sold out crowds to every home game. The fans adored them as they appeared to love and respect each other on the field. The length of the season/game allows the fans to really get to know the team and individual player personalities.
This bond — so much more prevalent before the age of free agency — between a team’s fans and the team itself is why baseball was so popular. You grew to the love the players which led to a better appreciation of the athleticism of the sport. In contrast, free agency breaks up the teams while it breaks the hearts of the fans season after season.
Which brings me back to this year. In my perfect world, the players and the ownership would see this as an opportunity to jump start the bond between America and the sport. They could then look to 2021 — when they are scheduled to renegotiate the structure of players’ compensation and revenue structuring — as a way to figure out how to keep whole teams intact more so than they have since the early 1970s.
A salary cap is very unpopular with the players. I really don’t understand this sentiment. Why doesn’t a chance to play in a sport where, like football, on any given game-day one team could beat the other due to more equality and parity, and therefor have a better consistent shot at the playoffs, seem appealing? Ah, that’s right, some players wouldn’t get tens of millions of dollars in any given season. And the owners would have to share the wealth of their television contracts with “lesser” markets.
Who cares if parity among teams would revive baseball; the point of play apparently, like every other industry, is about making money. There is no vision. No empathy for a future world where baseball is hemorrhaging money and eventually shut down at the detriment to future generations. As this 2020 standoff is exemplifying, there is no concern for the good will and interest of a sports-starved public, just the thirst for winning as much green as possible at the expense of the other guy.
If and when the MLB announces its start date for a very short season without fans in the seats, I will still tune in. After all, what else is there to do? There are players on this current team I still adore. And the Royals front office has been better at doing the right thing in 2020 more than the average ownership in comparison. They are known in the league as a caring, ethical organization. For that I am grateful.
But this personal acceptance doesn’t obscure the fact that I am disappointed. Capitalism continues to chip away at the philosophy that we are here on Earth for a very brief time; and the point should be enjoying our short lives — not competing to see who has the biggest most bulging bank account. If we shared our wealth with a larger population, both in baseball and in life, we’d see that less money leads to more riches in the stuff that really matters: generosity of spirit, happiness, and love.
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
- Yogi Berra