America's Past Time is Stuck in the Past

by Thilo Latrell Widdler

04.MAR.2022 (16.MAR.2022 Addendum Below)

Even in its darkest days, the MLB clung to its moniker as a proof of standing: “America’s Pastime”. The name explains why it’s so important for baseball to maintain. Since the first ever sports broadcast in 1920 was that of the Pirates playing the in-state Phillies, if Americans were not working, they'd be watching baseball. However, baseball’s viewership has been on a steady decline since 2011 with Nielsen reporting an all time low in World Series viewership in 2019. Baseball is headed in a dangerous direction, and with a strike turning off all but the most die hard fans, American viewers may continue their mass exodus and the MLB will be relegated to a second tier product.

Worker’s crises usually adhere to the following formula: if you stand with the union, you believe that workers deserve fair pay and benefits for their labor as well as the ability to join together to force their employers to at least listen. If you stand with the employers, you’re an asshole. It’s that simple. The MLB strike is no different. Now that the collective bargaining agreement between the MLB and the players association has expired, players see their chance to improve their joint situation. They want to reduce the season’s 162 games in 6 months schedule to reduce games per day, they want better health benefits to help deal with injuries not just while playing but also post-retirement, and, arguably most importantly, they want to increase minimum pay. This echoes what the NBA Players Association fought for a few years ago when they increased the length of the season to better distribute games and increased minimum salary. It’s not unprecedented, but when athletes make millions, it’s usually a hard sell to fans.

The biggest misconception in all of sports is the pay. While top tier players will always end up making enough money to support them and their families for the rest of their lives, it’s important to remember that those players are top tier because there are so few of them. There are 840 players in Major League Baseball but over 4000 players in the MLB’s assorted farm systems and minor leagues. The average NFL career is two years long. The average NBA career is three years long. The average MLB career will never even make it to the major leagues. Athletes mortgage their future earning potential of a 30-40 year career for their 10 year playing window, and need to account for their injuries, rehab, and training in that number. Playing baseball professionally is a no win scenario for all but the top 5% of players.

Which leads us back to the start. Why is baseball still on strike? The spectacularization of one NFL game a week per team has helped with viewership and would incentivize the decrease of the 162 game slog. There is a precedent set for increasing player pay and medical benefits set by the NBA and NFL in the past few years. Simply, MLB owners are refusing to fairly engage with the players union at the expense of literally everyone except MAYBE the future versions of themselves. That’s the situation we have in baseball right now.

There is only really one way to describe this. We may be witnessing the death of baseball, and it could frankly not happen to a more deserving league. While better player’s rights became the norm, the MLB has not just stuck in the past, but actively avoided any progression. It’s completely par for the course that America's pastime meets its end in the most American way possible: a stubborn refusal to improve or even discuss the rights of workers, and a seemingly self-destructive need to win totally or lose in shame.

Addendum 16.MAR.2022

It’s pretty funny to write an article and have it be basically entirely outdated immediately, but there’s one thing I was entirely right about. I said that “[the] MLB owners are refusing to fairly engage with the players union at the expense of literally everyone except MAYBE the future versions of themselves.” It’s what happened. This lockout didn’t help the players in the major or minor leagues. It didn’t help the managers. And it certainly didn’t help prospects and overseas players who are now subjected to a new draft system that helps NO ONE. This exclusively helped the owners. And they won by acting in bad faith and outlasting everyone else. The main issues I outlined previously are still almost untouched. The issues of lacking medical support, unfair and ancient contract values, and the grueling 162 game season were reportedly discussed. I want you to guess how much the MLB did in regards to those goals.

They got one of them. Not even. The new collective bargaining agreement will raise minimum salaries. With the starting point at 700 thousand in 2022, it will be raised by 80 thousand per year. In 5 fucking years. At the start of the 2026 season, the minimum salary will be 780 thousand. There will still be a 162 game season. There will still be next to no health services for retired players even if their retirement is caused by their play.

It was, and still is, my assertion that if you don’t support players in a lockout, you’re an asshole. And yet, when the news broke of a new CBA, what was trending at #1 on Twitter? “Baseball is back.” It was no longer about what the players were fighting for, just that they were once again available as a spectacle. It is certainly not at the level of Laura Ingraham’s infamous and disgusting “Shut up and dribble”, but in being more obsessed with our own entertainment than these players’ lives, we’re failing our heroes in a way that we cannot afford to do.