The Farce is Strong in This One...

Manfred's Follies continue on..

After the owners’ “best and final offer” to the Players’ Association was rejected late Tuesday afternoon, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced to the assembled media congregation in Jupiter, Florida that the first two series of the regular season — scheduled to begin on March 31 — were being canceled.

The farce continues…

Any invested party with half a brain has been screaming for months that MLB was setting up the union to either accept their lopsided demands or lose paychecks in April (as long as that postseason money is on the table…). Unsurprisingly, they did just that. And on Tuesday, the union called their bluff.

This was a long time coming. MLB imposed this lockout, keep in mind. Then, with time already of the essence, MLBPA waited six weeks for the league to even answer their call. Talk about setting the tone.

Once they did pick up the phone, the MLBPA made multiple early concessions on some of their big-ticket issues (early free agency off the board, for one) and deferred to the league on others (giving the OK to adopt a pre-arbitration bonus pool, for example), exhibiting a clear focus on protecting the future of the younger generation of union members. This is called good-faith negotiating.

Instead of partaking in the festivities themselves, MLB chose to formally request federal mediation instead of simply sitting down at the table and talking it out. That did not sit well with the union, naturally.

Since, the rhetoric from the league has been that of a schoolyard bully, as well as embarrassingly transparent. Non-starter proposals and counters. Callous disregard for historic revenue gains as well as spiking inflation. Insistence on cloak-and-daggering this entire thing. Just a wet blanket of a front.

In the hours leading up to the league’s self-imposed deadline, MLB’s media minions did their very best to sway public opinion, even going so far as to play on the emotions of arguably the most loyal fan base in professional sports with fictional tales of progress late Monday. All a ploy. And most of us, myself included, fell for the ruse.

Then Tuesday morning, those same Manfredian mouthpieces began spewing nonsense on changed tones from the players’ side. A preemptive attack, knowing the union would never go along with the strongarm attempt coming later in the day. Horrendous stuff.

Now here we stand, the 2022 season very much in limbo (or at least the start of it) and a canyon of disparity on economic core issues remaining between the two sides. Add a heavy dose of distrust on the players’ side fueled by multiple attempts by the owners to cajole and deceive, and the stage is set for a nasty showdown. And an unnecessary one.

In a $10 billion-plus industry (that figure is likely closer to $15 billion, but we’ll never know since MLB is a private entity and therefore under no obligation to disclose their financial records to the public) with just 1,000 or so union members, discussions on fair compensation should absolutely never get to this point.

Shoot, who are we kidding? Stuff like this shouldn’t happen in any working environment. It does, though. And that’s why the proclivity of some fans to side with owners in this spat is a bit shocking.

Yes, major leaguers make anywhere from good to phenomenal money in the grand scheme of things. As they very well should [points to estimated revenue above]. Being a pro athlete is great work if you can get it. And 99 percent of us can’t. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

But just because a their chosen line of work is a lucrative one shouldn’t mean that they’re held to different standards because of it. And they certainly shouldn’t be expected to cave into accepting a bullshit deal based on that manufactured misconception.

I certainly can’t remember encouraging my employer to pocket record profits by keeping my salary under scale. Eyes on the prize, MLBPA. We’re with ya.

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