Column: Don't come back until baseball has been made better

The talks are over, at least for now. Opening day is gone, too, and now we’re forced to wait to see if we get any baseball at all.

If there was any good news coming out of baseball’s labor talks in Florida it was this: At least now we know who to blame.

Here’s a hint: It’s not anyone wearing a uniform.

No, baseball players aren’t blameless in any of this, far from it. They keep wanting more when they historically have always had the best deals in all of professional sports.

But this one is mostly on the 30 miserable, conniving owners who have always cared more about squeezing every last dollar out of the game than they ever cared about the game itself.

Once again, they’ve stolen from baseball fans. This time they made off with opening day and at least six games out of the regular season.

Sadly, that may just be the beginning. The temperatures could easily hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) in Arizona by the time spring training begins, if it ever does.

For what purpose, it’s hard to figure out. Yes, the players' union can be demanding and is prone to asking for far more than owners are willing to deliver.

But the issues weren’t so complex they couldn’t be solved with some more time at the table. And the truth is, there was nothing on that table that would tilt the playing field so badly that franchises around the country would start bleeding money.

It’s almost like the owners didn’t want the season to start on time — and maybe they really didn’t. Outside of opening day, early season games are not generally moneymakers for owners despite Commissioner Rob Manfred’s contention that missing the games would be a tragedy for baseball.

For weeks, owners refused to negotiate at all. When they finally did, it was...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Don-t-come-back-until-baseball-has-been-16973484.php