It's looking like baseball is a go. I'm convinced the players and owners will work out their differences on the revenue sharing thing. I might be missing a few key items but I think I have the main ingredients. The players agreed to prorate their salaries when it became clear the season might be cut short if it happened at all. Since the games are likely to go on without fans, the deal isn't so good for the owners. They want to base salaries on a 50/50 split of revenues. Which I guess means money from the TV networks and whatever merchandise they can sell. Because ticket sales, concessions and parking fees won't exist. Obviously the players won't go for this.
Teams are telling players that the organizations will lose $640,000 per game with the current prorated salary option. It's probably not true but I'm sure they would lose something. If the owners were going to get crushed like that, and they believed the season to be a loss, why would they even consider playing? They would shut it down right away. But this is silly season when it comes to negotiating. Everyone starts with their most ridiculous proposal. Rays pitcher Blake Snell made an equally dumb argument.
“Bro, I’m risking my life,” the lefty said. “What do you mean it should not be a thing? It should 100% be a thing. If I’m gonna play, I should be getting the money I signed to be getting paid. I should not be getting half of what I”m getting paid because the season’s cut in half, on top of a 33% cut of the half that’s already there - so I’m really getting, like, 25%."
It's a good thing he doesn't have to work in a hospital and "risk his life" or even stock shelves at Walmart. He is entitled to reject the plan on whatever basis he wants, but why does it become more risky with a pay cut? He seems to think he would make the same salary without a season at all. Athletes do this on occasion. They remind us all of how rich and out of touch they are. But this is the negotiation phase and both sides would like the public to understand their cause.
I usually side with ownership in these labor disputes. Maybe I'm a hopelessly cruel Republican who longs for the days of indentured servitude and 12 hour working days? Or maybe I just really hate when teams overpay for talent. Baseball isn't a classic business like manufacturing with public financials making critical products for the nation. It's private, we don't know exactly how much it makes and needless, the owners probably fudge the numbers anyway. I'm certain that no one is struggling to keep their house. But they do have employees and taxes and all the usual stuff related to running a business.
Also, teams are eternal and players are temporary. It makes sense to pay them well, for a time. But when players over the age of 33 get big money and long deals it hurts the club. In other words, it hurts the competitiveness of the team long term. It's ultimately the clubs that agree to pay these crazy salaries though. I can't fault the players for getting the best deal.
Assuming they get the money worked out, here are a couple of possibilities. Every team could have a DH (designated hitter) and an expanded roster. Playoffs could include more teams and they might try out some new rules like ending the game in a tie if no winner exists after 12 innings. Some want to see how a robot umpire might fare.
This is all proposal stuff but it's fun to imagine. I've always been against the DH rule for the national league. But what the heck, give it a try. I can't believe they haven't gotten rid of these 13, 14, 15 inning games by now to determine a winner. It's bad for everyone to play late into the night and use up all the pitchers. This 12 inning tie thing needs to happen now.
There is always the obligatory social distancing stuff and the clean dugouts, clean bathrooms. That stuff bores me to no end so I won't dwell on it. Just work it out please and lets get baseball back.
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