So, I’ve now had 24 hours to digest MLB pulling the plug on the first two series of this season.
My view of the current pile of poop situation is that it is 75% owners at fault, 25% players. My according some blame to players is due to: (1) being dumb enough to agree to the luxury tax when they should have realized it’s a salary cap in disguise—and one with no salary floor safety net. (2) throwing young players and minor leaguers under the bus in favor of protecting the high end free agents. Of course, those mistakes were the past two CBAs. My list of grievances against the owners is much longer. I won’t rehash them, it’d take too long, and many have been mentioned in my posts in recent weeks. Suffice to say that it’s obvious they have not been negotiating in good faith.
So..,here I sit, more disgusted than angry, and have decided some things; I blog on baseball/sports because I like it. I will continue to do so, but only about players, college ball if something catches my attention—or KBO, or NPB. I will not write about any ongoing CBA negotiations (or lack thereof) until I can talk about real, genuine progress.
Consider this my own personal boycott of the MLB owners for now. Minor league baseball is not locked out, but many teams in the affiliated leagues are directly owned by MLB teams—including my local team, the OKC Dodgers. I thus will attend no minor league games as long as the MLB players are locked out. I will not blog about minor leagues while the major league players are locked out. I will not visit MLB.com either. Usually I check their website before I write about things I’ve read on other sites, wanting to be fair. Screw that. I’m not interested in MLB’s side of anything right now.
That will probably mean fewer posts here for now, but at least I will be in a better mood typing them up…probably.
To the players:
Fan Interference 
Well stated. If the current situation has soured anyone on baseball let me suggest that you go watch games at your nearest high school. Even here in balmy Michigan teams are playing (weather permitting) by late March. Then in late April most Little Leagues are starting. Go support kids that are playing for the love of the game.
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I was thinking just last weekend about doing posts about the OSU baseball team (winning!).
I’m so furious with the owners, I could spit.
That disingenuous statement about having to lockout the players because if they played without a contract, the players might strike in the post-season again was such crap! The answer to that problem is to make a good contract deal by freaking October! ptoo!
Also, the Dodgers have guaranteed $8 BILLION coming in over 25 years in cable money. They can eat all of Bauer’s contract and still have more money than a good number of countries — literally. They don’t even need to care if they make a paltry few million off of fans coming to the park. They have their money and it doesn’t matter if their teams win or not — or if there are games or not. The owners aren’t interested in the game of baseball. Most of them are corporations and the owners are only interested in how much make off the business — and clearly, that has nothing to do with the results of games. It’ll be about twenty more years before the Dodgers owners have to worry about whether or not lower viewership will affect a new TV contract. Thanks to global warming, by then teams may have to play Extreme MLB where players dodge wildfires or flooding on the field. ptoo, ptoo!
And, as gravy, the owners have turned “the ballpark experience” into a form of entertainment of its own that while built around a baseball game, does not hinge on the outcome of a baseball game. They have actively undermined public interest in the game and sold them on the outing instead. The owners can exploit low-wage ballpark employees all they want to service folks coming for the venue instead of a game. Cheap owners want to underpay journeymen players — who are still some of the best players in the world — and food vendors to make even more money because with all that TV money, they still aren’t satisfied. And they certainly aren’t fair-minded enough to properly reward the people whose work makes baseball or the ballpark experience possible. ptoo, ptoo, ptoo!
But, yeah, I’m supposed to be on the edge of my seat to see if the owners will agree to stop fucking with player’s service time.
DOWN WITH MLB OLIGARCHS!!!!
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