No sympathy here
At a time in which the American people have been hurting financially and emotionally and the coronavirus pandemic has gotten the best of us, I wonder how sympathetic they are to baseball players who are unwilling to agree to a contract in large part because their salaries have slid to an average of a “measly” $4 million per year, placing them in a lofty position of wealth.
The contract impasse can be summarized by calling it naked greed and selfishness. There is no concern for the businesses that are able to profitably operate based upon revenue from professional baseball, or the little guy and gal who work at stadiums as vendors, hosts, parking lot attendants, and concession stand workers.
Baseball is the only major sport without a salary cap: a critical mechanism to somewhat control outlandish spending by rich teams, providing them a huge advantage over small market organizations. The players union considers the Competitive Balance Tax to be a form of a salary cap, hence it asked for the figure to be increased from $210 million (an average of more than $8 million per year for every player on the roster) to $245 million.
The players will get no sympathy from this longtime Pirates season ticketholder who has for months been looking forward to games beginning as scheduled on March 31.
Commissioner Rob Manfred, no sympathetic figure either as he enacts rules changes to sully the sport, was right when he said that for regular season games to have to be postponed would be disastrous for the sport. The goose that lays the golden eggs may go into hibernation and many fans are likely to say “good riddance.”
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township