If you like what’s been going on in MLB for a few months, you must probably be a little sadistic. Without jokeeven if this lockout had been announced, I never would have guessed that the whole work would come so close to the ridiculous. Owners and players, all victims and at the same time, all guilty of their greed, are no longer pitied.
We are witnessing a pathetic masquerade orchestrated by the big boss of baseball Rob Manfred, a guy who still finds a way to smile in front of the cameras, a guy for whom I no longer have an ounce of esteem.
Baseball is touched in its flesh.
National Pastime … my ass, yes!
For the love of the game
To think that normally, at this time of year, I would be in a state of extreme excitement. No need to say too much: if you’ve loved baseball for ages, you know what I mean.
One opening day approaching is like a bone that you give to your dog, it makes you more than happy. I would be taking stock of the rosters of my favorite teams, I would start making my projections, my predictions. I would even consider placing a few bets judicious and daring, just to try to get me a little ticket at the end of the season. Who will hit the most home runs, who will finish top of their division, who will finish MVP? I would organize my pools baseball and would even start playing trash talk with my buddies who participate. Classic, what!
To date, none of that.
Instead, we eat hope to try to make us believe that things are improving, that things are being negotiated, that we are close to this or that. Both parties wait until the last moment to negotiate – hilarious. In fact, the one thing we’re close to, and all of baseball is close to, is precipice.
MLB owners thing has lockout
MLB owners thing not to negotiate for 42 days
MLB owners thing to cancel spring games
MLB owners thing to cancel regular season games.
And that’s all apparently funny to Rob Manfred. pic.twitter.com/9IjdLX8jJH
—Michael Mayer (@mikemayer22) March 1, 2022
Because yes, baseball is in danger. The 1994 strike got the better of many fans who never set foot in the stadium again, it also got the better of the Montreal Expos, so to speak, stopped dead in their tracks in a tremendous momentum that would probably have taken them elsewhere than where they are now. Let’s not minimize what is happening right now. Baseball will never be the same again.
Me, in all this, I’m moving away little by little from what made me who I am today. Hard to believe. After all these years, all this investment for a sport with which I am one, I do not accept being taken for an idiot.
Major league of smooth talkers
We are all coming out of two good years of hardship, of misery: confinement, empty stadiums, COVID-19 and its variants gossants, many people around me have lost a loved one in the battle. And hey, speaking of battle, this is war in Europe between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine.
In short, in such a world, the return of baseball last season did good and would do a lot of good in 2022. Like therapy, this sport that we love so much would almost make us believe that everything is going well in the world. In 2021, MLB has given us a treat. It was the funeverything was not perfect, but admit that it was good.
If I tell you Field Of Dreams. Emotionally, it was pretty good, right?
Baseball at its best! 🎥 🎬⚾️👏🏼#FieldOfDreams
What a fantastic scene https://t.co/NzH9POzrag
— Sebastien Tabary (@sebtabary) August 13, 2021
The icing on the cake for me was the victory of the Braves in the World Series. 2021 at the baseball level, I’m pretty happy with it.
My @Braves are 2021 World Series Champions #WorldSeries #BattleATL pic.twitter.com/Ogn6gunJlD
— Sebastien Tabary (@sebtabary) November 3, 2021
But 2021 was the good old days. With a wave of the hand, the MLB swept everything away, took everything back and kept everything for itself. She took back the bone she had given to the dog a little earlier while he was eating.
Manfred doesn’t like baseball. Manfred lied to us all the way. He wants to single-handedly reinvent a sport which for him is only the least of his worries. Banning special defenses to shine guys like Joey Gallo who will hit at most for .220 at the end of the season instead of .200: bogus!
Implement a pitch clock to shorten the duration of matches: why not reduce the duration of pubs between rounds, instead? Frankly, in a world where people need constant stimulation and where things have to go fast, does watching a match until 11:30 p.m. rather than 11:40 p.m. change anything for you? Not sure. These days, baseball games are mostly watched in mode highlights or condensed.
The other measures, I don’t even want to talk about them.
Short. The situation is serious. Baseball fans matter little to the big decision makers of what happens this year. We are like prey, like hostages awaiting their release.
Baseball has been in our veins for so long that it seems inconceivable to live without it. However, the exsanguination did indeed begin. To this day, the disappointment outweighs the love of the game. To this day, and for the first time in my life, I could say I could do without MLB in a year.
Not without baseball, because there are still minors, NCAA baseball and also the local baseball leagues in which I intend to play this year, but without MLB.
If the mentalities do not change and if the decisions taken go in the same direction, a day will come when we will no longer like baseball at all.
