MLB and the Players Association are still negotiating to see if they can hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) before spring training is pushed back, but fans and players are starting to worry, and Chicago Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman is no exception.
Stroman, who signed a three-year, $71 million pact with the Cubs before the lockout, understands what fans are feeling.
The league and the union had a meeting on Tuesday and are expected to talk on Wednesday, as well.
However, there is no indication they are even remotely close to a deal, and everybody is starting to worry.
Stroman Feels For Fans
Stroman is, by virtue of being a very good pitcher in the last few years, able to financially navigate through a lost season, but he knows many of his fellow players, both major and minor leaguers, need to play in order to support themselves and their families.
Stroman tweeted, after the unsuccessful Tuesday meeting, that he feels sorry for the fans.
Truly feel sorry for the fans of baseball.
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) February 1, 2022
Although some of his replies were actually blaming the players, the vast majority of them thanked him for caring about the fans.
Some people in the replies even told him that fans are actually worried about players.
While a small portion of major leaguers have been able to amass fortunes by staying healthy and signing enormous contracts, most players aren’t financially set for life, or at least for the foreseeable future.
Yes, an athlete, in this case a baseball player, has ‘a shot’ at making life-changing money relatively quickly, but most of them don’t have that chance.
We have to remember that an athlete’s career may be short, certainly much shorter than most other occupations.
Fans Are The Biggest Losers
But fans are, in addition to players, the biggest losers here.
There are no winners in the @mlb lockout. The fans are the losers. Both players and owners will still make millions if not billions.
— Jeffrey Bartley (@JeffreyBartley) February 1, 2022
While basketball fans are enjoying another NBA season and NFL enthusiasts are in for a very exciting Super Bowl matchup, MLB fans don’t know if they will watch a season this year.
Ever since 2020, they knew a long lockout like the one currently in place was a possibility, because the animosity between owners and players became evident during that year’s negotiations.
Both sides already know how to navigate through a global disease, but it’s baffling that they can’t agree on simple financial terms to play ball.
For years, owners have been enjoying the bigger piece of the pie, and players are fighting to protect their rights in what are usually short careers on average.
In the meantime, fans are forced to watch other leagues, get a baseball movie, dust off the trading cards, and look for classic games on YouTube and other platforms.
The MLB official site doesn’t even have player-centered coverage these days, so fans can’t stay up-to-date and have to search information through other means.
Stroman, as many other players have done recently, is siding with fans through all the issues, and hopes for a quick resolution that may or may not come.
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