Check Out The Benefits Of Trade Rumors Front Office

LOL

What goes around comes around…….

When players elect to consistently complain publicly about how their professional sport is run; whining like little children when they don’t get their way; then enlist their agents and friendly media to join the fight; it’s not a good strategy for promoting the sport. Portraying their employers as evil and exploitive while demanding more more and more day-after-day, year-after-year….that’s worse. Fans are worn out.

Sufficiently empowered, they take it a step further – they bring politics into the sport. Telling the paying customers what’s acceptable to say, do, and think. All the while making the owners of the franchises the evil bad guys by using classic oppressed / oppressor rhetoric to infer the players are exploited chattel. i.e. the Proletariat (underdogs / good guys) vs. the Ruling Class (bad guys). Labeling franchise owners as “billionaires” – all the while ignoring the fact that each year more players reach that category as the value of their multiple houses and other investments take them over that benchmark (not to mention that more and more agents are getting there as well). In fact, I would suggest that there are more current and retired MLB players that are “billionaires” then MLB owners. (Machiavelli would have loved what is being run down…….PT Barnum as well.)

The average fan – to whom $70k a year combined with health care, a week of sick days, and 2-3 weeks vacation is a pretty good deal (after finishing their schooling and 3-7 years of work experience) – has been irritated by these events for years. Then reality strikes in the name of COVID-19. Now the average fan and his/her family are suffering. They find their hours cut, possibly their jobs eliminated. Their businesses limping by if not entirely shut down. Their futures in doubt. So they turn to sports for solace……only to get lectured, belittled, and told they’re awful, “privileged” people if they don’t support ML players in their fight for freedom…..players whose minimum yearly salary is $563,500 – for playing 6 months a year. Worse yet, their taxes are paying for those parks with their manicured fields and 5 star locker rooms.

And where is MLBTR in all of this?

Why the players and their agents are simply angels. Modern day Freedom Fighters if you will (funny……I was in Civil Rights marches in the 60’s….didn’t see any Scott Boras types around…..did see some exploitive politicians tho). Short of beating their SO’s, all players are fine to do or say anything. It’s justified. They’re just being honest. On the other hand, a team representative doing the same is an ogre and loses their career. Players can strut around the field like the biggest roosters in the barnyard during pre-games. Then immediately change course and do the rehearsed soft-spoken humble thing they’ve been trained to do when the TV camera’s are turned on and interviews are conducted (Lebron James deserves a lifetime Oscar for his ongoing performances – sets the mark for all of pro sports, political campaigners, bureaucratic administrators, and used car salespeople). MLBTR is the tireless electronic newspaper fighting for those poor, exploited, talented souls that have all this student debt built up as they learned their skills….or not.

Two sayings –

1. “Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs”.

The players, agents, and media have done just that as far as all professional sports go. MLB is at the top of the list.

2. “Don’t insult the customers”.

You people do that every single day.

So now you have to go to a partial pay service. (I’ve been off of here for a year, it seems dozens of regular commentators tghat were here then have left). Same as ESPN and others – it’s not going to work. Adults face real issues, and move on. I was thinking about buying MLB Ticket this year after canceling 2 of the last 4 (had it since the day radio started, then TV) . But I’ve been helping out family and relatives in their 20’s and 30’s for 10 months now – that can’t find much work and will happily take anything that pays them and treats them half-decently. They’re good at what they do. They’re credentialed. They deserve better. Better to give 2 of them $100 and have them take their kids out to eat.

Get a clue – in times of crisis, habits change. For good. Pro sports will be around. Not as popular as antique and doll shows, but they’ll be around. The public doesn’t need a steady stream of thousands of players kvetching. With hundreds of media outlets running interference for them while going though countless tables of statistics and then referencing 3 or 4 to make an argument – people can read the political pages for that.

The fact is this – the level of play in all professional sports is awful. Sure the top 2-4 teams in each league are fun to watch. But the other 26-30 are not. There’s been too much expansion, Not enough quality players. Modern MLB with it’s constant substitutions and roster changes has even team fans confused with who’s on the field (like the NLF where every down 3-6 guys from each team run on and off the field…..how can a fan watch a team sport when they can’t keep up with who’s on the field of play competing from one minute to the next?). To all of that your publication is adding politics……and now you want people to pay.?

I appreciated your putting the Transaction Page of the newspapers into some perspective. It was helpful when one misses some time following the sport. At this point it’s probably not a sustainable business model.