By Daniel Winningham
For many die-hard sports fans, the middle of February is reserved for thinking about the start of baseball season. It’s either shortly before or after Valentine’s Day that “pitchers and catchers” reporting to spring training comprises non-stop coverage in many larger metropolitan television markets.
This non-story of all non-stories, players arriving to train for several weeks in a warmer climate, prompts endless field trips and live shots. Just to be clear, it is a story as the start of a new season is a notable, newsworthy event. I don’t see it as one that justifies all the attention that it always gets.
It’s one of the few times in which fans of any team can truly feel optimistic about their squad’s chances for the upcoming season. Example: The Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks both lost 110 games in 2021. The Orioles had an American League high losing streak of 22 games while the Diamondbacks had a National League high losing streak of 17 contests. That’s all in the past. What will they do in 2022? They both start at 0-0, so there’s plenty of room for optimism. Other teams exceeded expectations in 2021 and either got to the postseason or narrowly missed a playoff berth, which certainly has fans of those franchises excited about the future.
However, now it’s back to reality. Spring training may not happen this year. Major League Baseball owners locked the players out in early December when the previous collective bargaining agreement expired. Since then, there has been minimal discussion or dialogue of reaching a new collective bargaining agreement.
As the alleged impasses drags on, it continues to put a damper on the hopes and dreams for a successful, uninterrupted season.
This hasn’t stopped MLB from enticing fans with ticket deals as the dates of real spring training games approach. Monday morning, I got a notification on my phone about tickets for a Saturday, Feb. 26 contest between the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians (formerly Indians for the 1915-2021 seasons until a name change was announced last year). Yes, I can buy a $10 ticket for the “berm” area or a $15 ticket to the “party patio” at Goodyear Park in Arizona. It’s the spring training complex shared by both teams. Hard to see that game occurring and any after that with little to no effort being made to resolve the issues that led to the lockout.
It isn’t the first time that MLB has been out of touch with fans, and it certainly won’t be the last. A year ago, the MLB All-Star game was moved out of Atlanta after discussion surfaced that the state of Georgia was considering alleged voter-suppression legislation. The glorified baseball scrimmage between the American and National league, often referred to as the Midsummer Classic, was bumped to Coors Field in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies. The Atlanta Braves made sure MLB and its broadcast partners got to Georgia later in the year, as the Braves advanced to the World Series and hosted games 3, 4 and 5 of the Fall Classic. There have been MLB stoppages in years past, but other than the one in 1994 that wiped out the remainder of the season plus the World Series I can’t remember much about them.
Time will tell how long this one will take to resolve. There are a myriad of issues that are often included in the collective bargaining agreements that eventually get adopted, but typically the Major League Baseball Players’ Association only focuses on a few — say minimum salary structure, allowing players to get to free agency or revenue sharing — before a new deal is struck. They may cancel games as there are too many already in six months but getting rid of the World Series? The owners won’t make that mistake again, will they?
-Thanks for reading
Daniel Winningham is the managing editor of the Republic-Monitor. He can be reached at 573-547-4567, ext. 227 or email editor@perryvillenews.com
