Rant #2,843: Crying

It is March 1, and it is April Fool’s Day one month early for baseball fans, who woke up today hoping for an end to the baseball lockout, but simply woke up to hear of a new deadline for an agreement—or else.
 
Both sides are as selfish as can be, both sides are crying about the cutting up of a multi-billion-dollar pot, and while they cry over this, people are dying in the Ukraine, we have just been through the worst pandemic in a century, and some people don’t know where to turn for their next meal.
 
How they can look themselves in the mirror each morning and not realize that they live on some other planet with their behavior is beyond my comprehension and what’s worse, the irreparable damage that they are doing to the national pastime with their infantile cries won’t ever go away when they finally work this thing out.
 
People are enraged as it is with the situation we are going through now, so do you think they are going to give a pass to these spoiled brats?
 
What’s worse, I don’t believe either side cares one hoot about the fans—the people that pay their salaries—and thus, both owner and player have forgotten where they were before they were successful, they have completely forgotten where they came from, and I simply do not know how they are going to reconcile to the fans when this thing is over and done with.
 
Look, we fans are often stupid about such things, and many of us will run back to the stadiums as if nothing ever happened, and will spend gobs of money when we are at the games as if we have the same endless barrel of cash as the owners and players do.
 
But then, there are some fans who won’t forget.
 
If you remember the home run barrage of several years ago featuring the likes of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, that got people into seats after another nasty situation between owners and players.
 
But we found out years later that this was artificially created excitement, when we found out that these and other players were using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) to make their performance unworldly.
 
So we were taken advantage of then, but I don’t think that we can be taken advantage of now in the same way.
 
People won’t forget this time, and you can’t pull the wool over their eyes like what happened way back when.
 
Fans can be stupid, but not that stupid.
 
And what happens if this thing doesn’t get settled by 5 p.m. today, the new drop-dead date and time set by the owners—led by the worst commissioner since William Eckert, Bob Manfred?
 
What happens to baseball if that deadline is not met?
 
You are looking at games being canceled, and who does that really hurt?
 
Sure, the players would not get paid for these games, but honestly, even though they certainly won't admit it, they have plenty of money to survive such a situation.
 
I remember years ago, during another work stoppage, they actually had a picket line with wealthy players marching on it as if the loss of pay was going to make them homeless, and one player—Lou Whittaker of the Tigers—actually had the nerve to march on the line wearing a full length fur coat, which I am sure probably cost him as much as some pay yearly for their mortgage.
 
The canceling of games hurts the peripheral people who work these games, like the ticket takers, the vendors selling beer in the stands, the people working food service behind the food counters, those types of people—
 
Who depend on this money to pay for rent, pay for school, pay for food … you know, the Average Joes of the world.
 
That is who this whole shebang really is hurting, not the owners and the players.
 
It is hurting the municipalities who house these stadiums, because who is going to come to their stores to shop before and after games that don’t exist?
 
And maybe most importantly, it is hurting the kids who look forward to these games, live and eat and sleep baseball, who look at the players as heroes and could give a hoot about the owners.
 
The thing about kids is that they will find other things to occupy their time, and it won’t be baseball.
 
That is who this is hurting, not the players or the owners who could care less about the little guy in this mess they have created by themselves and for themselves.
 
And again, once this gets settled, I just don’t know how the game is going to win back the fans again.
 
Free admittance? Free food? Free inoculations?
 
I just don’t know, and I just don’t get it at all.
 
And the cherry on top was yesterday as Derek Jeter, an owner and executive with the Marlins, resigned his post and gave up his ownership, pretty much stating that he did not like the direction his team was going in.
 
I think that this is a smokescreen for the real reason he gave it all up.
 
Jeter was a hero to not just Yankee fans, but he was a players’ players widely respected by teammate and adversary alike on the ball field.
 
He was now on the other side of the line as an owner, and he just could not handle the fact that now, he, as a Hall of Fame player, was on the other side, and he simply could not handle that now, he was on the side of the owners, fighting the players tooth and nail for this big ball of wax.
 
So he used an excuse because he, as a former player and current owner, was really stuck in the middle of this thing, certainly at least understanding what the players wanted but now powerless to do anything about it as Manfred led his contingent of owners, which Jeter was part of.
 
Jeter certainly was conflicted, and couldn’t handle it, so he gave it all up.
 
Maybe the fans should follow his lead and give it all up, too.