Column: Baseball fights to return, but why even try?

There’s a chance baseball will still be played this summer, though pettiness, intransigence and the sneakiness of the coronavirus may dictate otherwise.

Just as well. Because it’s not baseball I want to see.

A schedule with so few games that the regular season is meaningless. A postseason with so many teams that it’s not special.

A game bastardized by made-up rules where everything is dictated by the chase for the almighty dollar.

Why even bother?

Declare defeat now and spare us all the arguing between players and management. Come back next year with a plan that respects both the baseball of today and the past it so glorifies.

Let the Grand Old Game take a break while there’s still something grand about it.

We’ve been without baseball for more than three months now, so it’s not like we can’t live without it. Yes, we’d like to see Clayton Kershaw pitch his way out of a jam or Mike Trout come to the plate with the bases loaded, but there’s no case so compelling for the sport returning that we can’t sit out the rest of the year.

Especially when the alternative is the Mickey Mouse assortment of rule changes for the short season that threaten to make it unwatchable.

That comes with apologies to Mickey, who would be ashamed to have his name attached to what this once great game is trying to become.

Sure, there are changes that baseball could make for the better. The sport is in urgent need of some tinkering if it ever hopes to regain its spot as America’s Pastime.

Unfortunately, none of those changes are contained in proposals from either the players or the owners. Both sides are so consumed with greed that the things they offer seem more intent on destroying the fabric of the game than preserving it for the future.

The DH will be implemented across...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Baseball-fights-to-return-but-why-even-15354666.php