Not Sympathetic

I am a baseball fan.

I like to watch highly skilled people play the game well.  In fact, I sometimes can handle watching people with less skill play the game less well.  I also used to like to play the game of baseball even LESS well than many and maybe a tad bit more skill than some.  I would even love to try to play again if there were opportunities.... it's just that I am less willing than I used to be to travel long distances for that chance.

I just read that Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players' Union can't come to an agreement for their new collective bargaining agreement.  They've been working on it all winter and have known that the prior agreement was going to end for some time.  But, the players are "locked out" and MLB has announced that they'll be cancelling some of the early season games.  

Given the knowledge of such disagreements in the past, I suspect we'll be missing more than a couple of weeks of games.

I am not sympathetic.

Sure, I am annoyed.  As I said, I DO like watching baseball being played at a high level.  So, I'll miss the chance to see the most talented individuals play a game for a while.  Annoying?  Yes.  Critical to my happiness?  No.

But, here is why I am truly annoyed.

This strike does nothing to address a large number of people who are employed directly or indirectly by Major League clubs.  The MLB Players' Association is pretty much arguing with very rich ownership groups over how the ELITE will be treated by the ELITE.  That's it.

I have no sympathy for either one.

Meanwhile, a minor league ball player who didn't happen to pull down a big signing bonus (very few actually do) makes $15,000 or less per season.  To be more clear, Triple-A is the highest level of the minor league system.  Players there make that average of $15,000 per season.  If you are in Single-A, that number is more like $6000.  In fact, it wasn't until THIS year that MLB thought to maybe... well... provide some place for their players to live during the season.

Meanwhile, the shut-down is about people who will make more money in one season than most people earn over the course of, well, many years.  Last year's MLB MINIMUM salary was $570,500.  Yep, a half-million dollars.  The new proposal is for a $700,000 minimum an increase of 18.5%.

Granted, I suspect you have to be on the big league roster the whole season to get it.  

For perspective, I would have to repeat our farm's best year TWENTY-EIGHT and ONE-HALF times for our profits to match the prior league minimum.  A Triple-A player would have to play THIRTY-EIGHT seasons to get there.  Neither of those are going to happen, either.

I have no sympathy for the elite MLB players - that's for certain.  I get annoyed when they cite "I need to take care of my family, but I'd love to keep playing for team X."  Take care of your family?  Lots of us take care of our families on far less than you'll make - so don't give me that.  You either want to play with a team or you don't.  

I have no sympathy for the owners either.  

Did they take care of their park workers when the pandemic resulted in cancelled games?  The short answer is no.  Will they take care of the park workers, grounds keeping crew and numerous other employees if this lock down goes on for weeks on end?

The short answer is likely again... no.

I'll get more interested in one side of the other when they start addressing the problems for people where an 18.5% salary increase could make a huge difference, rather than the elite who will likely get paid well enough regardless of the collective bargaining agreement results.