A Most Disappointing Day

Nothing happened today.

That was disappointing. I really was looking forward to today. I’ve been looking forward to it since November 2, 2021.

February 15 is always a day to look forward to. It means you survived Valentines Day. My lovely wife and I celebrated on Saturday, so I didn’t have a lot of stress on the actual day of Valentines.

But, that’s not why I was looking forward to today.

Today was supposed to be the start of Spring Training. It’s called Pitchers an dCatchers Report. The position players would report next week. Games would start in 13 days and the season, baseball season would start on March 31, 2022.

That’s not going to happen, because today nothing happened.

Here’s the front page of mlb.com today.

There are some articles about the CBA, that’s the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Basically, the contract under which Major League Baseball runs. None of the articles are dated today. Like many contracts, the CBA has a start and a stop day. The CBA expired on Dec 1, 2021. On December 2, BARELY December 2, the Major League Baseball owners locked out the players.

Why? Because they didn’t want the players to strike.

Yeah, that doesn’t make much sense to me either.

The CBA was signed November 30, 2016. It ran for five years.

No telling when the new one will be finalized. But, the current agreement is actually better for the players than the last CBA. Why don’t they sign it? Because there’s a lot more money in play now than there was 5 years ago.

MLB has avoided labor strife since 1994 when a player strike wiped out the end of the season and the World Series.

I understand baseball is a business. And that a team is simply a collection of assets that an ownership group hires to represent them. Sure they are.

But, for years I’ve found enjoyment through the Spring and the long dog days of Summer watching men try to hit a round ball with a round stick.

I look forward to it every Spring.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. Order Miscellany II, an anthology including his latest short story, “The Mercy System” here

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