MLB Owners and Players Continue to Bicker During Trying Times

When you really don’t want to sell something, you simply can overvalue it. For example, put your house on the market for $100,000 more than its value. If someone meets your request, you sign off and pocket a much larger profit than you ever dreamed of.

A similar dilemma is seriously jeopardizing the future of baseball. While fans are starved for live sporting events, the Major League Players Association and MLB Baseball owners continue to bicker over money.

With the Coronavirus postponing the first three months of the season, the players want a 114 game schedule while the owners are pushing a 50 game season. The player’s proposal would represent 70 percent of a regular schedule. The owners only want 30 percent of the schedule to be played. This is a massive chasm that appears to be beyond repair. Both sides’ proposals want players to be paid prorated salaries.

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With no fans allowed in the stands, the bulk of the revenue created from a return of baseball would come from television/cable rights fees.

If you live in New England and have cable, you are still paying for the sports package which includes NESN. Since the Red Sox own 80 percent of NESN, they are raking in millions of dollars per month, filling up programming with replays of games from 1986, 2004, or any arbitrary year.

If there are no games being played, the Red Sox bottom line will still survive since they would save $200 million in payroll. They would lose $180 million in ticket sales. In the real world that’s called a $20 million gross profit when factoring in revenue -minus – costs.

In essence, some owners feel it may be a better business decision to cancel the season.

Talk about people willing to cut off their noses to spite their faces.

Baseball has been in decline since the strike of 1994 which led to the cancelling of the World Series. Wiping out this season could destroy the future of the sport.

With no live major sporting events the past three months and none on the schedule for another 6-8 weeks, baseball has the opportunity to be the first to return and have the stage to itself. More than basketball and hockey, baseball has built-in social distancing within the game.

AL Batting Average Leaders – 2019


Rk	Name	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	HR	RBI	BB	BA ▼
1	Tim Anderson	26	CHW	123	518	498	81	18	56	15	.335
2	DJ LeMahieu	30	NYY	145	655	602	109	26	102	46	.327
3	Yoan Moncada#	24	CHW	132	559	511	83	25	79	40	.315
4	Michael Brantley*	32	HOU	148	637	575	88	22	90	51	.311
5	Nelson Cruz	38	MIN	120	521	454	81	41	108	56	.311
6	Rafael Devers*	22	BOS	156	702	647	129	32	115	48	.311
7	Xander Bogaerts	26	BOS	155	698	614	110	33	117	76	.309
8	Hanser Alberto	26	BAL	139	550	524	62	12	51	16	.305
9	J.D. Martinez	31	BOS	146	657	575	98	36	105	72	.304
10	Whit Merrifield	30	KCR	162	735	681	105	16	74	45	.302
11	Jose Altuve	29	HOU	124	548	500	89	31	74	41	.298
12	Yuli Gurriel	35	HOU	144	612	564	85	31	104	37	.298
13	Alex Bregman	25	HOU	156	690	554	122	41	112	119	.296
14	Mookie Betts	26	BOS	150	706	597	135	29	80	97	.295
15	Jorge Polanco#	25	MIN	153	704	631	107	22	79	60	.295
16	George Springer	29	HOU	122	556	479	96	39	96	67	.292
17	Trey Mancini	27	BAL	154	679	602	106	35	97	63	.291
18	Austin Meadows*	24	TBR	138	591	530	83	33	89	54	.291
19	Mike Trout	27	LAA	134	600	470	110	45	104	110	.291
20	David Fletcher	25	LAA	154	653	596	83	6	49	55	.290

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

At a time where a global pandemic and racial injustices are dominating the news cycle, what used to be our national past time is eating itself alive due to greed and indifference.

A sport that has an impressive spreadsheet and creates its product on the field more like a spreadsheet than a game, has clearly dropped the ball.

John Sapochetti is Co-Host
The “SAP & KAT SHOW”
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