Baseball is Doomed.
It’s here, baseball fans, it’s finally here. The day we have been waiting for.
What’s so important about today you ask? Well, according to everyone in the baseball world, today is supposed to be the last day of negotiations between the MLBPA and MLB before regular season games are canceled. You may be one of the optimists out there that thinks the two sides would never let regular season games get canceled over money and greed and all that good stuff but I regret to inform you, you’re wrong. I felt the need to weigh in on the current lockout going on in Major League Baseball and let baseball fans know that when it comes to getting a deal done, I wouldn't hold your breath.
Now you may be asking yourself, “What does this ex-soccer player know about the MLB lockout?” and that's fair.
To answer that question I’ll be honest and say, not a whole lot. I don’t know all the details nor do I care to learn them but what I do know is that the MLBPA isn’t built to back down to their overlords, they are built for the fight.
For the majority of my career in Major League Soccer I was a union representative for my respected teams. One of the biggest perks of being a union rep was the yearly all expenses paid “retreat” to Las Vegas where we would get together for a lot of meetings and a lot more alcohol. One of these meetings in particular always stood out to me above the other ones and it wasn’t because of the hangover I was fighting off but it was instead because of the guest who hosted it, the MLBPA.
What I learned from this meeting is that the MLBPA is the top dog of unions when it comes to sports leagues in this country. They are a fine tuned machine that has been around for decades and built up enough money and trust within their player pool that in the event of a lock out, they have enough resources to go toe to toe with just about anyone. Especially Rob Manfred. When most unions say that the owners have more to lose. I never really believe it; unfortunately for baseball fans in this country, (myself included) when it comes to the MLBPA, that may actually be the case.
So what do you get when a stubborn commissioner and a finely tuned MLBPA sit down at a negotiating table? I hope I'm wrong but my guess is not a whole lot of baseball.