Column: Enough greed, just shorten the baseball season

Major league owners and players seem to be in rare agreement. They want to play as many games as possible, as soon as possible.

Ordinarily that would be something to cheer for. But one look at the line of people in masks stretching outside Costco at 7 a.m. is evidence enough that we’re not in ordinary times.

The coronavirus has upended life as we know it. What would have been opening day on Thursday became instead a time for most to revisit old memories, not make new ones.

The only thing we know for sure is that this will be a season like no other. There is no template for sports any more, with the Masters still TBD and the Indy 500 pushed back to August at the soonest.

But players still want to make their millions. Owners still want their franchises to be worth billions.

They're both intent on playing as many games as possible once the green light is given to gather together again.

That’s not a bad thing by itself. Baseball fans everywhere will be so desperate that TV ratings will be up and people might even venture out to ballpark.

So go ahead and try to fit 100 or so games in. Expand the playoffs, too, and put later games in neutral sites so that weather is not an issue.

Get creative, like MLB did in splitting the 1981 season in two after a strike wiped out two months of games. Find something that works for the players, the fans and the record books.

But forget the scheme to play seven-inning doubleheaders. They’re not real games.

And whatever you do, don’t give us a World Series for Christmas.

Scratch greed off the lineup card for this, a season unlike any other. Eat some television contracts, and accept the fact this won’t be a full salary year.

Stop the incessant drive to pocket the last dollar you can from loyal fans.

Commissioner Rob Manfred’s...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Enough-greed-just-shorten-the-baseball-15159861.php