The MLB season has been delayed.
As a result of the ongoing lockout, the first two series of the 2022 regular season were cancelled, and the league has no intention to reschedule.
The sport is in complete shambles, with fans turning away at a rapid rate.
The game has become longer, and less action packed, which stands the reason why the younger generation of sports fans is turning to basketball, soccer, football, and hockey.
We don’t know when we’re going to get baseball again, and one writer in particular, Dan Szymborski, believes we’re in for a long wait before things are finally settled.
I'm thinking the odds of baseball before June are extremely long. If you really have a contingent of owners so hard-line that they were trying to institute a nearly hard salary cap that declined in real dollars *forever* I don't know how you can make an offer the MLBPA can take.
— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) March 3, 2022
A Bad Omen
This is a grim prediction, but not an outlandish one.
This could honestly happen.
Things are about as bad as they’ve ever been between MLB and MLBPA.
The writing was on the wall after the failed 2020 negotiations.
We all knew a lockout was coming after 2021.
Now, matters are worse, as the lockout threatens to potentially cancel more games and shorten the 2022 regular season even further.
The 60-game 2020 season was bad enough, but now, for the second time in three years, baseball will have a shorter season than the standard 162 games we normally get.
The sport is in serious trouble, and Rob Manfred was correct that losing games would be a “disastrous outcome.”
That outcome has become reality, yet Manfred and the owners seem to be completely fine with it.
Manfred even appeared to be laughing as he delivered the news of cancelled games on Tuesday.
That’s a bad look for the sport, and a bad omen as well.
If baseball waits much longer to get a deal done, the outcome will be catastrophic.
