An Open Letter to Major League Baseball’s Players and Owners
Dear Major League Players and Owners,
I'm sick of your posturing. I'm sick of you claiming you're poor. You're not making enough money. Yaknow what. If you bought a Major League Baseball team you're not poor. If you're playing Major League Baseball you're not poor. You may not be as rich as the fans who cheer you to victory think, but you're probably not working as a waiter at Denny's or selling insurance.
Yes baseball is big business. Turner sports just agreed to a deal worth $3.2 billion dollars over seven years. The WarnerMedia Network has a deal worth $470 million dollars a year starting in 2022. That's an increase of over $100 million dollars from their current deal. This according to CNBC. So Mr. owner, tell me again why you're poor? Plus yaknow, you had the money to buy and own a baseball team.
Oh and players listen up. I get it that it seems you've negotiated in good faith while the owners keep putting the same general offer out over and over over again. I get you think the owners are crying poor and that they need more help financially is B.S. I do too.
But yaknow what? The Major League Baseball Players Association isn't The Chicago Teachers Union, The Food and Commercial Workers Union, or the Teamsters. And Blake Snell isn't Norma Rae.
I'm not sure your fans: The ones who pay $120 for a jersey with your name on it. The ones who buy the $10 dollar beers. The ones who save to buy the overpriced tickets and parking... so they can take their family to the ball park once a year and enjoy a day of baseball, hot dogs, beers and sodas. They don't care about whether you make half your salary or a quarter of your salary.
They just know they've been working that essential job at the Tyson plant, the Walmart, whatever all the way through the pandemic. And their blessed because they never lost their job. Unlike some of your other fans who have taken it in the shorts financially since mid March.
And that's the point. Billionaire owners and millionare players who get to play a child's game are squabbling over how much money they're willing to sacrifice to put on a season. You look bad to every fan and potential fan out there whose struggled over the past few months.
So go lock yourselves in a room and don't come out until you have a plan. Preferably one both sides don't like. That's when you know you've truly hammered out an equitable compromise. If you can't do that, then a pox on both your houses.
Sincerely,
Rob Creighton
Average Baseball Fan
P.S. - A fifty game season is stupid. It's not even worth watching. Ya gotta play at least 65-70 games to make it worth it. Fix that too.