[USML Announce] Fwd: The latest from Jason Gay
springkerb at aol.com
springkerb at aol.com
Thu Jun 11 17:21:09 EDT 2020
At my wife's suggestion.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: karen springen <karen.springen at gmail.com>
To: Karen springen <springkerb at aol.com>
Sent: Thu, Jun 11, 2020 9:07 am
Subject: Fwd: The latest from Jason Gay
For your league?! xo
Baseball’s Big Whiff: Where’s the Summer Game?
It’s a golden opportunity for a sports-starved country. But the Major Leagues are deadlocked in a dispute over money.
Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver yelled at umpire Steve Palermo during a game in 1979.
PHOTO: APBy Jason GayJune 11, 2020 7:54 am ET
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What the heck is baseball doing?Friends, I only want a few things in life: peace on earth, equal opportunity and justice for all, health and happiness for my family, decent tequila, and maybe—maybe—a talking cat that knows how to play tennis and make a frozen margarita. If I never have to log into another Zoom call ever again, that would be swell, too.I’d also like at least a fragment of a baseball season in 2020.What’s going on? The NBA is prepping an invite-only, no-bad-teams basketball bubble in Disney World—the thrill of Space Mountain, without the blah of the Knicks. Hockey has a two-city plan with a Stanley Cup free-for-all. Nascar has already started taking left turns, literally and figuratively. The UFC just announced a waterborne idyll called “Fight Island,” which sadly isn’t Nantucket.And baseball? Baseball’s just sitting in a lawn chair, drinking warm beer, and clipping its toenails.The country’s most stubborn sport is doubling down on its obdurateness, deadlocking itself in a dispute over money, blowing a golden opportunity to delight a starving American sports audience.What a whiff.I’m not a serious baseball nut—if the Journal’s great baseball writer Jared Diamond is an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10, I’m somewhere around “less than Jared”—but the standoff still makes me shake my head. I want to leap out of the dugout like the late, great Baltimore Orioles skipper Earl Weaver, throw my cap, cover home plate with dirt and shout at everyone involved.Bleep bleep !@#$%!! Is it too much to ask to play some !@#$%! ball?(That’s my Earl Weaver impression. I know: It’s amazing. Thanks.)At first, baseball seemed to have its act together. The change-resistant sport got serious about getting back to action as soon as public-health officials deemed it safe. It mulled a cactus quarantine season in Arizona before settling on a realigned, regional structure in which teams would play in their home ballparks before no fans.Opening Day on the Fourth of July was presented as a target. Kind of perfect, to be honest. Made me a little nostalgic and misty. Hot dogs on the grill and baseball? What’s not to like?
A flag is unfurled in the outfield before a July 4 game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers in 2019.
PHOTO: MARK BLACK/ASSOCIATED PRESSThen baseball…went baseball. A sport that’s no stranger to labor strife started going sideways. With zero chance of playing a complete, 162-game season, owners and players began squawking over compensation. The players say they already took a financial haircut, when they agreed in March to have their salaries prorated to however many games they wind up playing. The owners want players to get a bigger haircut, because stadium revenues will be dramatically smaller.Round and round it goes, with counterproposals, dramatic claims of permanent damage and no solution in the offing. The situation veers from pessimism to optimism to screaming into the void, depending on the hour. The owners are using a familiar tactic, trying to corner the players as greedy and hoping public opinion turns against them. The players think the owners aren’t being fair—or financially transparent—in trying to renegotiate.No matter what side you lean toward, the optics are terrible. It’s millionaires vs. billionaires in a nation with double digit unemployment. An Independence Day opener is out the window.Cardboard Fans, High-Five Bans: Baseball During the PandemicYOU MAY ALSO LIKEUP NEXT0:00 / 3:22Cardboard Fans, High-Five Bans: Baseball During the PandemicLive sports are starting to come back after months of coronavirus-enforced standstill. Among the changes: quieter stadiums, ubiquitous face masks. The WSJ’s Andrew Jeong attends a baseball game in South Korea to see how they play through a pandemic. Illustration by Crystal TaiWhat a swing and a miss. As Jared wrote the other day, baseball had a chance to get on the diamond before any other major American sport came back. With a nation climbing out of virus-driven lockdowns, it was a golden shot for an old sport with shrinking public mindshare to earn good will and the attention of casual fans.Think about it: This has been a long, challenging spring for this country. People are exhausted; lives have been derailed. I don’t buy into that treacly baseball is a metaphor for life mumbo-jumbo, but the sport is undeniably a soundtrack of the summer. Wouldn’t it be nice to turn on the radio in July and hear a ballgame?I’d be so happy baseball came back, I wouldn’t even make fun of the Trash Can Thumpin’ Houston Astros. OK, that’s a lie. I’d still make fun of the Trashstros. I’m sorry. It’s too funny.
MORE BY JASON GAY
- The NFL Talks the Talk. Will It Walk the Walk? June 8, 2020
- The NBA Player Who Knew George Floyd Doesn’t Want Anyone to Forget Him June 3, 2020
- America Is Raging. Listen to What’s Being Said. May 31, 2020
- You Will Probably Ride a Bicycle in 2020 May 29, 2020
- Need a Lockdown Lift? Meet the Kettlebell Guy of New York City May 25, 2020
Instead, we have a standoff—shades of the canceled season disaster in 1994. Every passing week means baseball’s calendar shrinks. At this rate, MLB is going to limp back in November with a twi-night double-header. Meanwhile, other sports are getting ready to jump into the pool.Could baseball blow it entirely and fail to come back? It’s possible—and it would be an unmitigated disaster—but I don’t want to go there just yet.The optimist in me says: this huffing and puffing, this is tactics, this is negotiation, this is what happens. Everyone in baseball must know it would be terrible to not get a season under way, so at the end of the day, there will be an agreement and a return to the field.I sure hope so. Summer’s coming, and baseball’s already behind in the count.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you confident baseball can get back on the diamond this summer? Join the discussion.---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: WSJ.com Editors <access at interactive.wsj.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 7:10 AM
Subject: The latest from Jason Gay
To: karen.springen at gmail.com <karen.springen at gmail.com>
Baseball’s Big Whiff: Where’s the Summer Game?
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Baseball’s Big Whiff: Where’s the Summer Game?
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Karen Springen
847-770-0621
karen.springen at gmail.com@karenspringen
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