By: JON WILLIS
Major League Baseball has been a sport that has been slowly dying. There are many parts to why baseball might be a dying sport, but one thing is for sure, they definitely are not helping. Baseball has been a sport that has been slowly losing popularity for a couple of reasons. The big ones are they are not adapting to the youth, it is a sport that some consider boring and not a lot happening, and they are doing things like they are with this lockout. The MLB owners and MLB players association are currently not having any operations as they bicker over silly things.
The joke has always been with these things happening that it’s billionaires vs millionaires. Now why that might be funny, it is not 100% false. The average MLB player in 2021 earned an average income of 4.17 million dollars and a median income of 1.1 million dollars. The average salary for a U.S. citizen is roughly 51,000 dollars. So I know this might sound harsh, but these players who are complaining about money are really already set up pretty nicely in life, at least a lot nicer than the average citizen.
Now I know I am bashing the players early on, but it really does come down to the owners. The owners continually think that this is just all about money when really there is a lot more to it than that. The owners initiated the lockout and with Rob Manfred, the commissioner of baseball, announcing the first two series of the season have been cancelled, it is now impacting a lot more than just the players. I want to add by the way that when Manfred had his press conference where he announced this, he had a big old smile on his face which really just showed where baseball is at this point in our time.
So let’s go over what each side wants just to get a better understanding. The players basically want more guarantees of money. The MLBPA wanted to increase the competitive balance tax threshold to 238 million, and was seeking an 85 million dollar bonus for pre-arbitration players. Some things they did want were already agreed upon with owners. There will now be a universal DH, and an expanded playoffs. The owners originally wanted 14 teams, but they eventually agreed on 12. Now those are the basics of what the players want, I know there is a lot more to it, but for this article that’s the basis on what we will go off of.
So how do we fix this? Talks have been going on for a couple of weeks now, and it is being reported that really no progress is happening. Players have also come out and said that the owners really hadn’t started talking negations until like a week before that March 1st deadline. That’s the first issues there. The owners and the players should have been talking since the season ended. Everyone and their mom knew that the players wanted to change some things, so why were talks not started earlier? The next thing that needs to happen is compromising, and that is on both sides. The players need to realize they are already set for life on a professional salary, and need to be ok with not making as much money as they are asking for. If you’re the owners, you need to realize that these players are the one actually on the field making money for you and for the team. Both sides need to not be so hard nosed on what they want and be willing to compromise.
I really do think both sides, the players and the owners are being extremely selfish right now. The players are saying that playing and not getting what they want is hurting them, but I don’t think they realize the people they are hurting by participating in this lockout. Each team has concession workers, field managers, security, employees, broadcasters and more that are currently unemployed that rely on baseball to make a living. Last, and most importantly, they are hurting the fans. When it comes down to it, sports in general is an entertainment business. You could not have a baseball league without the fans. Fans want desperately to watch baseball, and they are stabbing those fans in the back by being selfish and not figuring this out. I am referring to both the players and the owners by the way.
One thing I do hope comes out of this is that college baseball grows in popularity. I hope ESPN and other networks start to put college baseball on their airwaves because you don’t see those problems in college baseball and it’s very high quality competition. This lockout continues to hurt baseball as basketball and football are continuing to dominate in the most popular sports in America. In 2022, football had the biggest viewership in America at 38.8% with basketball at 15.3% and baseball/softball at 14.8%. Baseball used to be “America’s sport,” and now it is in the rear view mirror.
If baseball wants any chance of keeping MLB popular and relevant, they need to figure this lockout out. Baseball has a lot of work to do anyways to keep the sport popular anyways, which I could write a whole other article about, so they need to compromise and figure this out. This lockout is hurting a lot of people, most of which aren’t actually in this lockout, and the MLB needs to figure it out because that’s what the fans deserve.
Sources-
https://en.as.com/en/2021/10/08/mlb/1633685987_178363.html#:~:text=According%20to%20recent%20data%2C%20MLB,shows%20a%20totally%20different%20picture.&text=The%20average%20salary%20of%20an,to%20%244.17%20million%20a%20year.
https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/average-american-income/
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-mlbpa-cba-negotiations-update
https://sportsbrowser.net/most-popular-sports-in-america/