“We Want A Pitcher, Not A Rich Ol’ Bitcher”
With the baseball strike looming in the distance, what are Americans doing to prepare for the inevitable collision between owners and players? Pretty much nothing. What can we do? And in the big scheme of things, who really gives a rat’s ass.
I am a fairly avid New York Yankees fan. I watch their games when they are on, but don’t tend to watch baseball when they are not playing. Although I am faithful to the Yankees, I suppose I am not the most faithful fan to MLB in general. Still, after getting used to (although not bored) watching the Yankees continue to play games well into October (and November last year) I have tried to imagine what life may be like this Fall if a strike occurs and once again the World Series is cancelled. What I found was a bit surprising. I realized that I would be fine, life would move on, and I might not even give it a second thought as I spend more nights on the porch enjoying the weather as it begins to cool.
The question often asked is, whose side am I on? Can the players and owners come to some agreement? Will everyone be happy? The answer to that question is that everyone but the fans may be happy. Bigwig’s assessment of MLB’s treatment of the fans was dead on, the paying public are simply whores for MLB. This is not to suggest that we should not go to the games. As mentioned, I love to attend a game. The problem begins when the players and owners stop playing our national pastime to quibble over millions of dollars, completely ignoring me as a fan, yet I return to the ballparks as soon as they kiss and make up. Simply don’t go or don’t bitch. One group has attempted to start a movement to show MLB the importance of the fans, but the fact that most of you have never heard of them should be some indication as to their effectiveness.
The point I am trying to make is that this really is not as big a deal as we are making it out to be. So we won’t have baseball for a while, does it really matter? The sun will still rise, I will still have bills to pay, and I might even end up spending a good amount of time outdoors doing something productive instead of watching the tv in 3 hour chunks. The owners and players will continue to talk over the next week and offer new proposals consistently during that time. Maybe they will come up with an agreement, and maybe they won’t. I’m just suggesting that having professional baseball will not make my life, or perhaps even my Octobers any better.
The last straw came for me when I heard Nomar Garciaparra say how they were doing this for all of the kids who will play professional baseball in the future. He doesn’t want them to look back and say, “Man, I wish I could have played back then.” That has to be the biggest load of bullshit I have ever had to stomach. Screw you and your million dollar salary. Perhaps the players don’t realize how good they have it. Do they understand that most of us will work 30+ years and not make the money they make in one year? Do they realize that if we do illegal substances we are most likely fired? If you cared about anyone you would look after the fans and work hard to come up with an agreement that truly would be good for everyone. But that would most likely call for the “C” word (compromise), and that apparently is not in either of these groups’ vocabularies.
Take your balls and go home, I just don’t care anymore.
