With this being the first summer since 2019 of America being free of a global pandemic (**fingers crossed**), what was once the country's favorite pastime may not be available to us.
Major League Baseball has canceled opening day, with commissioner Rob Manfred announcing Tuesday the sport will scrap regular-season games over a labor dispute for the first time in 27 years after acrimonious lockout talks collapsed in the hours before management's deadline.
Manfred said he is canceling the first two series of the season that was set to begin March 31, dropping the schedule from 162 games to likely 156 at most. Manfred said the league and union have not made plans for future negotiations, and that players won't be paid for missed games.
"My deepest hope is we get an agreement quickly," Manfred said. "I'm really disappointed we didn't make an agreement."
Uh, yeah, it shows.
This image is going to stick with me for a long time. pic.twitter.com/MnvUWywq4d
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) March 1, 2022
The fact of the matter is that MLB has not increased its fan support in any significant way over the past decade, whereas the NBA and NFL continue to be juggernauts. Former Twins third baseman Danny Valencia best encapsulated the disparity in fan partisanship.
Mike Trout, the best player in the show, has 1.9 million followers on IG, playing in Los Angeles. Tyler Herro, good player for the Heat, no where near Mike trout good, has 2.3 million followers. Why?
— Danny Valencia (@dannyvalencia19) March 1, 2022
I don't believe it's an exaggeration to suggest that Trout is this generation's Mickey Mantle (in terms of talent and raw numbers), yet maybe half the country could positively identify him. And that's with orders of magnitude more exposure (i.e. via internet and cable TV) than was available to Americans in the 1950s and '60s.
MLB owners and the Players Association may yet hammer out a new CBA this week and thus we'll miss out on only a handful of regular season games. But even if we attain that best case scenario, MLB still has dramatically improve the marketing of its game in addition to stemming the tide of anger among its loyalists. Moving on from Commissioner Manfred might not be a bad place to start.
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