Will the MLB season start on time?
As the CBA negotiations drag on with no sign of either side budging, we look at what chances there are of the regular season starting on time
With Spring Training now dead in the water, eyes shift toward the traditional Opening Day, this year falling on March 31st, and what hope remains of the season starting on time. It was announced by that MLB has set a new deadline of February 28th for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement if there is any hope at all.
Throughout this lockout, the owners have acted with contempt and haughtiness in their dealings with the MLBPA as well as with the fans. Don’t be fooled, this lockout is the fault of ownership and ownership alone. They originally stated that they wanted to use the lockout to kickstart talks, but then took 43 days to present their first offer to the players. More than half of the time spent so far in lockout has been simply waiting for the first offer from the MLB.
The players are sticking to their guns, and so they should. The numbers may look huge, but it comes down to counting pennies when you consider the cost per team. In a sport that takes in over $10.7 billion per year, the minimum salary of $775k that the players are asking for is not unreasonable.
Opening Day is a sacred thing for baseball fans. It is Christmas, New Years and birthdays all in one. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record on Opening Day. Twelve of our 46 US Presidents have thrown out the first pitch on Opening Day. MLB’s international expansion desires have seen eight Opening Day games played abroad, in Mexico, Japan, and Australia. Simply starting later in the year is a terrible idea. Several ideas have been mooted by both sides as “non-starters” and this should be one of them.
Baseball fans are a fickle bunch. Alienate them at your peril. I tend to be an optimistic person so I still hold out hope that common sense will prevail and we will start on time. But with both sides entrenched, it is by no means a certainty. Neither side seems willing to make the first move toward a compromise and we are down to our last ten days of hope for a full regular season. I’ll cling on until the last, but until then, I’ll be watching college baseball and dreaming of a baseball filled summer.