MLB worked hard to prevent this situation.
That was the second sentence of the Pirates' email to season-ticket holders (all eight of them) Tuesday, upon news that opening day had died a needless death at the hands of selfish, deceitful, money-grubbing owners.
Maybe I have a skewed definition of "hard work," but going 43 days without so much as submitting a proposal to the players — after locking them out Dec. 2 — doesn't quite qualify.
It seems far more likely that owners wanted to run out the clock. Missed games mean missed paychecks for players, which theoretically lessens their resolve. The owners make their big television money on the postseason, not the regular season.
But forget about whether the owners care about the players. Do you think they care about you? Do you think they care about the people who work in and around stadiums who've been crushed by the pandemic and depend on games happening?
Commissioner Rob Manfred had the nerve to say, "The concern about our fans is at the very top of our consideration list." The evidence would suggest otherwise. Owners could easily move a few more feet in these negotiations and still call it another easy win. They refuse.
After gutting the minor leagues to save money, these guys apparently want a kill shot here. They won't even agree to a minimum salary to match the NHL's, for goodness sake, and as Travis Sawchik of The Score writes, "No sport leans on minimum (salary) like MLB (those players accounted for 52% of service time in '19 & '21)."
Players aren't looking to fundamentally change the economics of baseball. They've pretty much given up on that. They'd just like the owners to shorten their victory lap a little.
We built most of these guys' stadiums, by the way — we did the heavy lifting on PNC Park — and they reaped the profits. Before the pandemic hit, baseball saw record revenue growth for 17 consecutive years, topped at $10.7 billion in gross revenue in 2019, even as the average player salary stayed stagnant for four straight years (dipping slightly in 2019).
And as ESPN's Jeff Passan put it, "The would-be stewards of the game pleaded to anyone who would listen that owning a baseball team isn't a particularly profitable venture."
Recall this from St. Louis Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. a few years ago on 590 The Fan in St. Louis: "The industry isn't very profitable, to be quite honest."
That was right around the time the Kansas City Royals and Miami Marlins, not exactly flagship franchises, were being sold for more than $1 billion apiece.
The Nuttings were part of a group that bought the Pirates for $92 million in 1996. What do you think the franchise is worth now?
Anyway, another part of the Pirates' email repeated one of the owners' favorite pieces of propaganda: "The league requested the assistance of a federal mediator ..."
That one is designed for fans to respond with something like, "Geez, what more do the players want? Let a mediator decide and let's play ball!"
What they don't tell you is that a federal mediator cannot issue a binding ruling or even mandate progress. In other words, it wouldn't have done any good, other than to run more clock.
The first line of the email went like this, as reported by the Post-Gazette's Jason Mackey: "We are disappointed in this news and know that you are, too."
This "news"? What, did it catch them by surprise? Are we supposed to picture Bob Nutting doing a double-take at his laptop, staggered by the stunning headline that baseball has canceled opening day? The owners created this "news."
I could get into the actual negotiations here, but that's exactly what the owners want. They love it when people get bogged down in Super Twos and Competitive Balance Taxes and pre-arbitration bonus pools, knowing most people will throw up their hands and say, "I don't understand what they're arguing about. Can't these billionaires and millionaires figure it out?"
Owners love the "both sides" argument.
But back to the email: "(MLB) made significant offers to address the union's concerns and participated in nine consecutive days of negotiations, including a 17-hour day, to reach an agreement."
It sounds like they're asking you to appreciate all the hard work they put in, including a really long day. They want you to be impressed.
Are they kidding?
Finally this: "We are all committed to finding common ground with the MLBPA to get the season started and seeing you back at the ballpark."
Our ballpark, right?
The one we built?
