Did you hear the locks turning and keys thrown away all over Major League Baseball stadiums, including Fenway Park, at midnight?

No, of course you didn’t, and you probably really don’t care.

Baseball shot itself in the foot once again, but at least this time it took MLB and the Players Association 27 years to do it after the second half of the 1994 season, including the World Series, was cancelled.

The battle over the almighty dollar is back with the lockout underway and the MLB labor dispute official. You really won’t care too much over the icy cold winter, except don’t expect the Hot Stove to warm you up anytime soon. Baseball enjoyed a great few days of big free agent signings, something that usually crawl along during the winter. The irony is the reason we had all those moves is because there won’t be any for months.

In February you’ll begin to realize it. Spring training is supposed to get underway a couple of days after the Super Bowl, but that’s not going to happen, you can be sure. Neither will a 162-game season.

Nashua Silver Knights general manager Cam Cook played the game in college, and now works it from the business side. But even he can’t fathom why the heck this is happening.

“My thought on a lockout in any sport in general is its crazy two sides can’t come to an agreement about getting paid millions and millions of dollars to quite literally play a game,” Cook said.

Theoretically for Cook, a long lockout into the spring could be a double-edged sword. He doesn’t think it will have a huge impact on the sport in general at all levels, but fans could turn their backs on the pros and head to the Futures League and other collegiate league games.

“If anything it helps us,” Cook reasoned. “If we’re the only game in town … What I’ve noticed with the Silver Knights is that as long as we get someone in the door, we’re pretty good at making sure they come back. … If it’s a Sox fan who doesn’t have a game to go to and come see us, they’ll probably come back because it’s cheaper and a pretty good time.”

Cook agreed that there could be a trickle down effect, but he hopes it’s “a good trickle down for us.” And that people don’t take a negative view of the sport just because the millionaires are throwing a hissy fit.

Cook, you see, comes from a level, a Division III school (Nichols) where the players he knew who had the chance to be drafted just loved the idea of “getting paid to play a game I’ve played since I was 11. A dream come true.”

Then there were the scenes from Wednesday, where a union activist such as pitcher Max Scherzer gives the tough lockout talk while he’s on a zoom press conference call to announce his record three year, $130 million contract.

Ummm…what’s wrong with that picture?

These two sides are so far apart it’s ridiculous. It could be bright and sunny and one group would say it’s cloudy with rain coming.

Think of what you are paying to go to Fenway Park. Outrageous. So even if the Major Leagues do come back in the summer – believe me, it could very well take that long – forget them.

Go to Holman Stadium to see a Silver Knights game, or a Legion game, or a high school tournament game instead. You’ll have more fun and won’t have to take out a bank loan ahead of time.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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