It looks like we are inching closer to a return for team sports.
By the time you read this, it’s possible that both the NBA and the MLS will have deals done with ESPN that will allow the leagues to house players in hotels at Disney World and play games at the Wide World of Sports athletic complex on property. The NHL is inching closer to finalizing plans for a 24 team tournament played in multiple locations. College football conferences are deciding one-by-one when to bring players back to campuses.
The NFL…well, the NFL constantly operates in a way that makes you wonder if the owners believe we owe them something. Either the league doesn’t care if players get sick or the owners believe that at least one of them possesses magic powers to cast an impenetrable, sterile bubble around stadiums and practice facilities, because they ain’t changing nothing!
None of these organizations claim their respective plans are perfect. Many of them have used lost revenue as at least as important a factor as health concerns. These plans represent the highest level of acceptable risk each league has arrived at.
Then there is Major League Baseball. The sport that should own the summer is stuck in neutral. No games will start until the Major League Baseball Players Association and the team owners reach an agreement on compensation. Right now, the two sides couldn’t be further apart on how those conversations begin.
Initially, both sides agreed to prorate the players’ salaries. Whatever a player’s annual salary is would be divided by 162. Take that number, multiply it by the number of games that actually get played in 2020, and boom! There’s your paycheck.
The owners reneged on that deal when it became clear there won’t be any fans in the stands in 2020. They now want the players to agree to a revenue split as a way to make up for the money that won’t be coming in. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark says that isn’t good enough.
Both groups have a legitimate gripe. The owners sign these deals based on an assumed ability to create revenue. On the other hand, the terms of the deal are in writing. Both sides agreed and signed. Why should the owners expect to be able to pay players any less than what is in the contract?
You wouldn’t know there is any nuance to this debate if you were to turn on any of several national talk shows or read columns from any of several different websites. The media is deep in the bag for the owners on this issue. So deep, in fact, that I question the sincerity of their arguments.
Take Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo for example. He has been shouting that the players “can go to hell” on both television and radio.
Mad Dog’s point is that the players were aware that MLB owners would want to renegotiate the deal to pay prorated salaries if there were no fans in the stands. This employee of the MLB Network pretends not to know the name of the name of the 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner. He pretends that he doesn’t know this is all a negotiation.
Russo is an employee of SiriusXM, who has a major rights deal with Major League Baseball. He is an employee of the MLB Network. Let me take a stab in the dark at what might be behind this level of passion.
We all have a paycheck to protect. Russo has chosen to protect his with meaningless, performative gibberish.
Now look, Russo isn’t alone. Fox Sports Radio’s Ben Maller called Blake Snell, that aforementioned 2018 Cy Young winner, “the king of all douchebags” for saying the risk of contracting Covid-19 isn’t worth playing for less money than what his contract says he is owed. ESPN’s newest addition to its baseball broadcasting team is Chipper Jones. The hall of fame third baseman was a little softer in his critique of Blake Snell.
Chipper Jones acknowledged that any players worried about their safety or exposing their loved ones have legitimate concerns. Still, he was critical of Snell or any other Major League player bringing up money as a reason not to play baseball right now.
“You know, the 30 million people in America that are out of work right now, they don’t want to hear about millionaire baseball players bitching because they’re only going to get 25 or 30 percent of their salary this year,” Jones told The Athletic’s David O’Brien. “They don’t want to hear that. So, I thought (Snell’s comments) could have been worded a little differently. I haven’t heard anything else out of Snell, so I would imagine he probably got a phone call from Tony Clark and/or (commissioner) Rob Manfred saying, ‘Hey, let’s temper what we say and maybe take a different narrative and make it less about money and more about people and people’s health.'”
Chipper Jones is going straight to the “hey, think of the working man” angle, which isn’t irrelevant, but it is crazy manipulative.
I’m not going to tell you that you aren’t allowed to be annoyed by Snell or any other millionaire complaining about losing money right now. They’re your feelings. Feel them. Just don’t feed me corporate approved nonsense to make the billionaire owners look like they are on the side of the little guy.
How do you get rich in this country? You have the ability to make other people rich. Snell makes enough money for Stuart Sternberg, that the Rays owner saw fit to sign a contract that said he would give Snell $7 million per year.
You can be jealous. Hell, I am! But don’t pretend that a paycheck means ballplayers owe it to the fans or to team owners to constantly compromise.
I am not saying that I don’t believe any media members genuinely feel that way. I am saying that it is awfully convenient that so many of them are using the same language and expressing concern for how Major League Baseball labor negotiations effect the poor, working stiff.
Back in September, I interviewed Jason Whitlock for a piece I wrote about sports media professionals dealing with the social media mob mentality. He had recently come under fire for saying that it is ridiculous that every single NFL analyst looks at the video of US Women’s National Team midfielder Carli Lloyd kicking field goals at Eagles practice and goes on TV to say that she could make an NFL roster. He swore to me that his comments weren’t rooted in misogyny, but in logic.
“They all said the same thing, which I just don’t think is reflective of reality,” Whitlock told me. “One person should’ve expressed some skepticism. Hell, all four should’ve expressed some skepticism.”
Where is the difference of opinion on this issue? Doesn’t it stand to reason that a former player or manager that is now in the media would be on the players’ side here? Shouldn’t that person stand up and say “Hey, why when a player holds out for more money fans will shout ‘if you didn’t like it, you shouldn’t have signed the contract,’ but now those same fans are silent when owners are the ones that aren’t happy with the financial terms of a deal they signed?'”
Baseball fans are crazy devoted to their favorite pastime. Many of them hate when modernity rears its ugly head, especially when we talk about skyrocketing player salaries.
Speaking as someone that likes baseball fine, but won’t go out of his way to watch it, it sure does seem like the league’s broadcast partners are playing on the hardcore fan base’s distaste for the players and their paychecks. When all of these voices are saying the same thing, the outrage can’t possibly be genuine. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I know it will make me question the sincerity in these voices in the future when they want to make a point about baseball.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
