With rumors of a MLB season swarming around like wild hawks, the baseball community is anxiously awaiting word on a possible MLB season. In order for this to happen, sacrifices will have to be made, those of both players and owners. Those sacrifices are in regards to pay, safety, and ultimately ask the question, is it worth it to play? There have been major public discrepancies between players and owners regarding negotiations on pay. Players have agreed to a prorated salary for 82 games of play, which ends up being a 50% pay cut. Owners have responded with further cuts asking them to reduce their prorated salaries by 30%, claiming they will be losing almost $700K a game. Players, rightfully so, have publicly and fiercely responded by saying there’s no way that will be agreed upon.
Yesterday, a new plan of salary cuts was presented to the players association. The proposal was laughed at by players and we will await a more appropriate compromise.
But, besides pay, there are other surface level questions floating around within the industry that includes;
What will the official start date be?
How will the divisions be divided?
How do they keep players including essential staff safe?
Are there enough tests for the general public, players, and all MLB team staff members for an entire season?
How will the teams be constructed?
Will there be changes to the 40 man? A taxi squad?
How many games will be played and how will playoffs look?
Will players and organizational staff have to be quarantined away from families?
Up until Sean Doolittle, closer for the Washington Nationals, looked to twitter to discuss issues other than player pay, losses from owners, construction of divisions and teams, the discussion of the overall safety of the entire country with baseball being played had not been completely open. If you haven’t seen the thread, please refer to it here.
Sean touches upon multiple facets of the current situation including our unfamiliarity with the virus and the long term and drastic effects it has on healthy and unknowingly unhealthy bodies. He urges us to think about it’s specific affect on men, our need for constant testing while not taking away access to the general public, and pays tribute to the safety of not only baseball staff, but the workers of surrounding industries that help a baseball season run smoothly. He shys away from the surface level issues and passionately proposes the problems baseball and its’ relationship to society will have to sort through before a season can be held. He leads with facts, compassion, science and he always shows receipts. He says he wants to play for the fans and he hopes that we can, while stressing the importance of further working through the issues regarding health and safety.
Soon and surely after, Sean was met with the replies of angry sports fans begging him to stick to sports, calling him entitled, accusing him of not wanting to play this year, and urging him to keep his opinions and politics separate from his career.
There were so many references to his political affiliation that Laura Ingraham was probably slow clapping from her Fox News studio dressing room while scrolling through the feed.
The constant referral to politics started to really bother me. This pandemic has become so much more about our political beliefs rather than what it’s really about, health and safety. I struggle to understand how there’s one group of people who believe so strongly that their liberties are being affected more than others. How someone explaining factual evidence in which the way the return of sports will have both long term and short term affects on others and society can become a target of such hate. I don’t understand the intense division.
To me, it’s a black and white scientific issue. We know how to get through this and those matters are in place. The question Doolittle proposed was essentially, “how do we incorporate sports into the current climate?” It wasn’t, “how do I use my political beliefs to determine how we can play baseball?”
The truth is, everything right now is politicized. Maybe it’s because we have a Cheeto Puff coated Supreme Leader to blame or maybe it’s just how the evolution of our society is supposed to unfold. But, even if Doolittle had previously aligned himself with a liberal agenda, it shouldn’t matter when it comes to a global pandemic. What should matter is the safety and health of all and an ethically appropriate way to achieve a return of sports.
We all want sports back, that’s a given. It’s absence has affected us in ways we didn’t know it would. We’re all yearning for the sweet sound of the crack of a bat and to have our favorite announcers walk us through 9 innings every night. But, before you jump to conclusions of left or right, remember that this is not about politics, it’s about baseball.
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