Blog Post 1
West Neill
PS 101
Dr. Jenkins
March 10, 2022
Blog Post 1
Over the past few months, Major League Baseball has been facing some major conflicts causing a delay and a possible halt to the season. Canceling the 2022 MLB season seems outrageous right? Well, the problem is the collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017 expired at the end of the 2021 season. This agreement covered the financial structure of the league as well as the conditions of employment for the MLB players. Before this agreement expired, conflicts between the franchise owners and the MLB Players Association arose when negotiating terms about the new collective bargaining agreement. With no progress being made between the two parties before the deadline the MLB has decided to cancel opening day as well as the first two series of the season and plan to further delay games until an agreement is reached. This issue is commonly referred to as a lockout. A lockout is when MLB owners shut down all baseball facilities and activities, to pressure the Players Association to lower their standards for negotiations. The last time the Major League has seen an issue like this was during the 1990s the players went on strike due to similar reasons. This resulted in the removal of the 1994 World Series. This has infuriated the entire baseball community, as they fear the 2022 season could end up like the 1994 World Series.
The MLB Players Association is a board of forty current and former players, at least one representing each MLB team. This Association is very similar to a labor union, their job is to protect the players' labor, and economic conditions as well as ensure fair wages. Well, the Players Association realized shortly after signing the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) that the team owners were progressively reducing player salaries while capitalizing on revenue sharing. For example, the Baltimore Orioles are only paying their entire roster $42 million. Seems like a lot of money, right? Well almost half of the teams in the MLB pay their roster $100 million more than the Orioles. Their strategy is to profit immensely off the revenue sharing, which is an agreement between all teams in the MLB to combine 48% of all revenue generated throughout the season and split evenly amongst all thirty MLB teams. Last season each team received an estimate of roughly $110 million. Considering this is half of the revenue the Orioles generated, the math is nowhere close to the agreement in the 2017 CBA which proclaimed franchise and players revenue will be split 50/50.
From the players' perspective, there is a lot of work to be done to the foundation of the financial system in the MLB. Early this year Max Scherzer, a current pitcher for the New York Mets, took to social media and new networks to expose the contract manipulation and young players' stagnated salaries that MLB owners had been abusing for the last four seasons. The players' side of the baseball community is stuck in a serious dilemma. If they were to continue to demand their standards, they would continue to face lockouts and cancelation of regular-season games. Their other choice is to give in to the team owner's demands of continuing the previous agreements from 2017 as well as extending the 2022 season. I think a possible solution for the Player Association is to get the baseball fan community more familiar with the manipulation that is happening. If they were to expose more facts about this issue on sports networks and social media, the fan base will help force a lot of pressure on the team owners and hopefully place more provisions to protect salaries and contracts for the players.
The fans of the MLB are not only enraged at this issue, but they are also becoming discouraged about baseball in general. Referencing a comment made on social media by a fan about the lockout, “I’m uncertain how or why players and owners would expect their dwindling fanbase to continue to care about a sport that is so dysfunctional and cares so little for the people who pay to watch it.” - Zach Royster. Obviously, this situation does not benefit anybody from any side of the baseball community, but I think the fan base is going to be affected the most. Thousands of fans counting down the days until they can watch their favorite team play, might not even get the chance to this year because of greedy franchise owners that have no remorse for their players. A possible solution for the fans to prevent this from happening is to help support the players. The fans of the baseball community are the ones who provide the revenue for the MLB. If they create protests and threaten reduced revenue towards the league, they will create an incentive for the team owners to submit to the MLBPA’s demands. Baseball needs its fans now more than ever to help fight for this sport we all know and love.