ST. LOUIS — I’m reporting to you from the future. It’s Aug. 17, 2022 — so, six months from when you’re reading this. That Major League Baseball lockout you and other fans are enduring? Well, it happened — games were ultimately lost. The owners and players didn’t agree to a new collective bargaining agreement until May 1. After a wedged-in spring training, the league began a 100-game season in early June.
And so, here we are on Aug. 17. Baseball is back on, but it just feels off.
It’s a weekday night at Busch, and entire sections are empty. Scattered fans in other sections look like they’re social distancing. Now, the lower bowl still fills out pretty well — the Cardinals are still the Cardinals, and that’s still Nolan Arenado out there, and the team is in the division hunt. But attendance numbers are startlingly down across Major League Baseball. There is this malaise. This discontent. This disconnect.
In Tampa, you can count the fans by hand — and that team is good. In Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and Baltimore, the DMVs are busier. At a game in Miami, one intrepid reporter interviewed the only fan in the entire upper deck — the video went viral, of course.
Baseball lost fans after the 1994 season ended prematurely and without a World Series. And while there are snapshots in our memories of the fans supporting the 1996 Cards in the playoffs, or the Yankees winning it all in New York, that era of 1995-97 was rough for the game. For the industry. And now, we’re all experiencing it again in 2022.
The lockout burnt out some fans. Baseball got cocky. Both sides didn’t fully comprehend the repercussions from losing even just a couple months of games. The beautiful bond between the game and its fans is now weathered and tethered and tested. Baseball wasn’t there for the fans when it was supposed to be — spring training in February and March, opening day on March 31, and spilling into summer — so some fans aren’t there for baseball now that it’s crawling back into their lives.
And because there are just 100 games, it just doesn’t feel like a regular regular season. The rhythm isn’t there. There’s no flow. There aren’t the natural mile markers of a season. It feels like this year doesn’t, if you will, count — at least in comparison to other seasons. And that’s keeping even loyal fans from going all in.
Sure, many fans appreciated the last shortened season in 2020, but the season felt almost like a gift to Americans who were suffering through the pandemic. The 2022 shortened season feels like an insult to those same Americans, many who are still suffering, be it emotionally, physically or financially.
Yes, the two sides are happy they finally came to a conclusion. The players got their way in a lot of bargaining regards, and that was good for the game — and for the future of the game. Hopefully, there will be less tanking now. More competitiveness. And the higher luxury tax threshold should earn more players more money. But that’s for 2023 and 2024 and beyond. We’ve got to get to those seasons first. And right now, in August of 2022, the sport feels stuck.
It’s sad to think how many opportunities were missed because of the extended lockout. So many “first games” never happened. So many autographs weren’t signed, selfies weren’t snapped, foul balls weren’t caught, hot dogs weren’t devoured, bobbleheads weren’t bobbled. So many little moments that make up the fabric of a ballpark experience — of a childhood — just didn’t happen. Growth of the game was stymied ... first by the lockout, then by its fallout.
There are long-term effects to that. We won’t see them now. But there are so many things competing for young people’s attention. And if baseball doesn’t grab you when you’re wide-eyed and youthful, it might never get you. A generation could be altered. Same for the trajectory of the game.
Oh, and it’s the third weird year in a row. Fans couldn’t attend most games in 2020. And in 2021, in fans weren’t allowed to completely fill stadiums until later in the year. And now, the 2022 season is sullied.
And the owners’ greed makes it tougher for fans to stomach paying for things at the games. Make that “overpaying.” Yes, fans have been complaining about ballpark prices since the first ballpark. Still, prices are absurdly high for tickets and parking and food and souvenirs, and then to think you’re giving your hard-earned money to the people that caused you so much frustration?
The lockout took some of the romanticism out of going to the old ballgame.
Incidentally, as for the ballgames, they’re still maddeningly slow. So many pitching changes and step-offs and steppings out of the batter box. And there’s still little action. Sure there are homers. And the new designated hitter helps that even more. But there are so many strikeouts. And walks. (And more strikeouts). The modern game doesn’t have the life to it that it once did (and that was even before the deflating lockout).
There are minor effects to the lockout that provide major annoyance. With the fewer games, there are fewer rivalry matchups in 2022 and fewer chances to see big-name American League teams come through St. Louis. And, because of an untraditional spring training, injuries are up. Stars are sidelined.
So that’s life in August of 2022. Maybe 2023 will be similar to 1998? Maybe there will be a revitalizing home run race? Perhaps epic swats from Fernando Tatis Jr. or Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani or Nolan Gorman will capture the nation and restore the game.
But it’s frustrating to think baseball got to this point in the first place — when it could’ve avoided missing games back in February.
