Could Major League Baseball and the MLBPA be any more tone-deaf?
Could Major League Baseball and the MLBPA be any more tone-deaf?
The answer is no; they couldn’t be more tone-deaf. While the entertainment and sports world continues to thrive, MLB is busy creating apathy towards their sport. While the world outside of entertainment sports churns in turmoil, MLB is basically encouraging fans to become disenfranchised with the game.
In 1994, a strike killed the last month and a half of the regular season and the entire postseason. Baseball came back in 1995, almost a month late after a delayed start to the season. The divisions changed, and the sides agreed on a four playoff team system.
MLB was king then. Sure the NFL was making great strides to compete with Major League Baseball for sports entertainment market-share, but there was more than enough to go around. The NBA was a distant third but was expanding their league at the time.
In 2020 though, the pandemic kicked off the first signs of real labor trouble. Major League Baseball had an opportunity to take the field first, in regards to all team sports. That negotiation exposed MLB’s fragility and lack of awareness about where they stood as a sport.
Eventually, MLB settled on a 60-game sprint for 2020 after neither side could compromise on something greater. Those contentious negotiations foreshadowed the 2022 CBA showdown between the two organizations.
