Kiz: The players and franchise owners of Major League Baseball are stupid, greedy and tone-deaf. Seldom, if ever, has the game seemed so out of touch with America. (Whew. Got that off my chest. I feel better now. Thanks.) The NBA and NHL are coming back from the coronavirus. The NFL never left. Weren’t pitchers, catchers and hitters supposed to report back to camp this week? But it sounds as if MLB is bent on letting a money fight kill the season. Say it isn’t so, Patrick. What’s the compromise here?
Saunders: Kiz, what we have here is, “a failure to communicate.” Of course, that’s nothing new for baseball (see, strike 1994-95). Compromise takes some degree of trust, but there is very little trust between the owners and players. The players are determined to get a fully prorated salary based on the number of games played. They say the won’t budge. The owners claim that for every game played in 2020 without fans in the stands, teams would combine to lose $640,000. If this was only about money, I might have some faith in the game’s return. But this is also about power and that’s a tougher thing to bargain.
Kiz: The coronavirus shutdown pulled back the curtain on truth we’ve denied about baseball. Players and team owners love money far more than fans who love the game. But I get it. The bickering sides in this MLB dispute are in a tougher financial spot than their brethren in basketball, hockey or football, because so many games have been lost. Baseball is not charity work, and 2020 is doomed to cost everyone in MLB money with every game played at empty ballparks. What’s the answer? I humbly suggest a 64-game regular season ending in September, with a wild and crazy 14-team playoff to follow. I’d watch that.
Saunders: The players originally proposed a 114-game schedule and the owners recently pitched an 82-game slate. I don’t see either of those plans as realistic at this point. So I agree with you. Rather than try to put together a chintzy regular season, salvage what you can and create a College World Series-style postseason. MLB already has a black eye but a high-stakes tournament would get some eyeballs glued to the TV. Baseball needs to break with tradition in this crazy, tragic year.
Kiz: Once COVID-19 played havoc with the MLB calendar, this season was always going to carry an asterisk. But if baseball can find a financial compromise and bring a little joy to this troubled summer, I’d prefer to view it as a badge of courage rather than an asterisk. On the other hand, if MLB shuts down because of money, that asterisk will morph into a black mark that haunts the sport for years. I won’t forgive or forget. Do you think Rockies owner Dick Monfort and third baseman Nolan Arenado would rather take their bat and ball and go home rather than play for less dough?
Saunders: I think both Monfort and Arenado desperately want to play ball. For Arenado, it’s not just about the money, but he believes he owes it to his fellow players to walk in step with the union. Monfort, though very wealthy, does not have as deep of pockets as some of his fellow owners. So 2020 is going to hurt him financially, but I do think he cares about the fans. There are some owners who want to cancel the season — right now — but I don’t think Monfort is one of them.
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Kiszla vs. Saunders: Can stupid, greedy MLB find compromise to play ball in 2020? - The Denver Post
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