Jeff Danziger for March 06, 2022

“I got it”… “No I got it”… “No, I got it”… As for me: I don’t get it. Never have. Don’t care. Never have. But as long as it makes enough people happy, I’m okay as long as it doesn’t active cause harm. Feel the same way about most religions. And “celebrities” (whatever that means)…

News flash to all these overpriced prima donnas,baseball is not about the players! It IS about the fans! If the fans did not come to the ballpark to watch the games,all these fat cat owners would be broke and the players would just be 9-5 jobbers!

So the national pastime is passing the buck. That checks out.

Greed is the spice of life

… ever since the gladiators of Rome (and doubtless “players” of other cultures).

Back in the 60s a player for the Baltimore Orioles lived down the street from us – nice fieldstone rancher with a two-car garage. Nice house, but nothing spectacular. He was, however, quite generous with donations to local organizations and charities. Never any scandals.

Totally different from today’s players.

The Minor Leagues will be playing baseball this year their season starts in April

I became horrified at sports as I got older, with the disparity in value and importance related to everything else in our society.

Playing baseball in the neighborhood was far more important than listening/watching professionals play the game when I was growing up. My family had the biggest lot on our street for our “home” games that we used to compete with the teams on the adjacent streets during spring and summer.

I’ve just about had enough of baseball. It’s not a game it’s just big business, with millionaire players fighting with billionaire owners. Give me college teams and the Cape Cod Baseball League every time. My only regret is that the folks playing on those teams all seem to want what MLB promises. But for now, I enjoy watching games played for the joy of it – to hell with the pros.

Soccer looks better every day. I know how long the game will be, and the action is nearly continuous.

I have not attended a game since 1994. Stopped watching as well, and it was difficult, but I persevered. The next year I had no desire to attend nor watch. And from being a die hard fan of a team I now look at the standings once or twice a week and check the playoff results when they are played. Don’t even watch the World Series. No big loss.

The main dispute is over teams having a salary cap and a salary floor. The owners want a salary cap to prevent the rich teams from giving out the 200 million $ contracts. The players want a salary floor to require the cheap owners to increase payroll. There are numerous teams that spend little on players and are happy and to lose in front of a stadium with only a few thousand fans as long as they get the big $ in TV money.

In football, the teams can cover their payrolls with just the national TV money without selling a ticket. Baseball, on the other hand, has a wide disparity in the different teams local TV contracts—and the national TV money is far far less than in football. (Twice teams left Los Angeles -the second biggest city in the country-for, respectively, St. Louis and the return to Oakland. The Oilers left the huge city of Houston, for that matter. No baseball team would EVER leave such a huge potential ticket base.) Yes, the owners are the primary problem here. The players could stand to compromise a bit more than they are, though.

The only baseball I watch nowadays is the Little League World Series. Those kids put their hearts and souls into playing the game, and it’s really refreshing to watch.

It’s not about the players. It’s about the owners. The players’ salaries have not kept pace with revenues because the wage tax has become a de facto salary cap, artificially lowering wages.

No, it’s not about the fans. No matter how this—or any other labor dispute—plays out, they’ll pay the same to watch baseball. The marketplace sets those prices. This dispute between owners and players is about how those revenues are divvyed up.

MLB better watch out or Bobby Bonilla could be the highest paid in baseball this year.

The knee jerk reaction is a “pox on both houses” until you hear Manfred’s drivel about “owner’s risks” and refusal of most teams to open their respective books. Out here in the left coast, Oakland’s owner John Fisher makes tons of coin and won’t pay his players until he gets a new stadium. He stamps his foot and threatens to leave for Vegas like the Raiders, so it looks like the city will again capitulate, and Mr. Fisher and his minions will reap bigger profits.

and they will get their way and the fans will pay for it

Support Ukraine. BOYCOTT SHELL GASOLINE!

I can’t stand wasting a whole afternoon watching baseball, when in 1919, there was a championship game, (and pardon me, I should have written it down when I heard the information on the radio several years ago.) The whole game took and hour and a half. Boom, let’s get the kids home, lets stop for a beer. Now it’s not worth turning it on. I’ll be asleep before the 4th Inning is over. And don’t get me started on NFL. 4 hours or better to play ‘four’-‘4’ 16 minute quarters. Give me a break.

Pretty much covers it. Paying millions of dollars to people with no skills other than to play a children’s game. It’s the perfect metaphor for everything that is wrong with America.

There are no true winners. We pay more. Players get rich if only they’re famous. If they’re not. or they get hurt or swindled, et cetera, their options are dim unless they plan for it. The coaches and owners accept a lot less risk.