Alan Greenwood

Apparently, even in the context of a pandemic, fatally stealing a man’s most inalienable right and its resulting street violence, one of the few diversions is watching billionaires and millionaires squabble across a virtual negotiating table.

Welcome to the latest skirmish in the ongoing war between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Of course, the owners are not all billionaires and the players are not all millionaires. On the issue at hand – will there be any sort of a 2020 baseball season – it seems more civilized than calling them all fools and lunkheads.

The latest offer and counter-offer highlights their fundamental dysfunction. The players propose a 114-game season and division of revenues guaranteeing players about 70 percent of their salaries.

The owners fired back with a plan calling for 50 games and prorated player salaries.

That sound you hear is a trumpet from both sides: “Nyah, nyah nyah!”

Such is the condition of our national pastime – rich folks arguing about how much richer they should become. No bats and balls necessary.

Since details of the negotiations can be so easily melted down, there is no need to regurgitate them here.

The subplot in this mess is very plausible: The players want to extend their unbeaten streak in strong-arming the owners. The owners, tired of serving as the Washington Generals against the Harlem Globetrotters, want a win.

Many baseball people reside in a cocoon of self-delusion. Lots of uniformed personnel, in their heart of hearts, believe that someone in their little world will endure whether fans support or dismiss them.

Lots of owners, regardless of how much equity they have gobbled up since buying their franchises, actively prop up the notion that they are losing their collective shirts and need relief.

This is all an infinitely greater threat to Major League Baseball than pitch clocks, making batters stay in the box and further limiting mound visits.

They are looking like a gaggle of jackasses, incapable of getting out of their own way to play ball.

Some players have said that even if games are played in empty ballparks. Some owners have said they would be content to let 2020 go with no season at all.

There is time for the combatants to simultaneously blink and get a deal done. It seems less likely with each day this high-stakes spitball fight goes on.

Advice for those who are hopeful that a baseball season will actually happen this summer:

Just look away.

Nothing to see here.

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248 or agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter