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 |
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
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