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| Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Ryan Yarbrough putting on a mask at Tropicana Field during a workout this week via @RaysBaseball |
MLB's target audience cannot relate to the players. As is the case with all professional sports. Players make millions of dollars to do what so many kids, adults, and even grandmas and grandpas DREAM OF. The owners make more, though.
With the COVID-19 Pandemic still keeping millions of Americans on the front line as essential workers NEEDING to work, millions of others are unemployed, and they need an escape.
During a crisis, sports are often an escape. The week of the 2013 Boston Marathon only had one Red Sox game postponed. The 9/11 Attacks only caused the NFL to stop for a week. Due to the extremely unique circumstances of the last few months, sports have been taken away from us.
As MLB is not in the middle of what would be their postseason like the NHL and NBA, they seemed like they were on track to return first. But to the fans, it looks like during a time when citizens are risking their lives every time they clock in, the millionaires are being greedy, but if they cave the billionaires win. It's a sticky situation.
This is the latest from Nationals' ace Max Scherzer:
— Max Scherzer (@Max_Scherzer) May 28, 2020
This was in response to MLB's proposal to the MLBPA regarding some precipitous pay cuts.
Rays' ace Blake Snell joined the conversation a few weeks ago on Twitch saying he didn't want to "risk his life" the pay cuts proposed at the time, separating the rapport with fans even further.Sources: Under MLB proposal to players, a player making $35 mil in 2020 would make about $7.8 mil. A player making 10 mil would get about 2.9 mil and a player making a mil would make $434k.— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) May 26, 2020
I agree with the players, these numbers are crazy:
Potential salary cuts in MLB plan, sources tell @JesseRogersESPN and me:— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 26, 2020
Full-year Proposal
$563.5K $262K
$1M $434K
$2M $736K
$5M $1.64M
$10M $2.95M
$15M $4.05M
$20M $5.15M
$25M $6.05M
$30M $6.95M
$35M $7.84M
But, they are not going about it the right way. Maybe they are afraid of going after their owners, but the MLBPA is known to be the strongest player's union of the 4 major sports. Even though the owner's ultimately pay their salary, there is ZERO salary without the fans.
No sport can afford cancelling a season. Fans will look at it as an abundance of love for money and not the game.
Something needs to change and with the strength of the MLBPA and what players are saying on social media right now, I am not confident in seeing the next chapter of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry in 2020, I'm not confident in seeing the Astros get thrown at all season, and I'm not confident that we will see a new dinger record or have a conversation about juiced balls in 2020.
I hope to see it. I am rooting to see it. The fans just want a compromise.
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You can find Johnny on social media @johnnymaffei12