I Have No Reason to Believe in Baseball After This Lockout

You read the title right. I said what I said.

I loved the game of baseball from the moment I started watching and playing it. That's about 21.5 years of my life, take that for what it's worth and hear me out. I cannot put good faith in the MLB anymore after this work stoppage.

Who's REALLY at fault for Letting Baseball Get Like This?

It's not the players, I can assure you of that. It's the other side of the table, the owners are largely responsible for this. They initiated the lockout and can lift the lockout at any moment, including as this is written, making null and void the entire piece I wrote. Don't let any owner in his righteous mind tell you he's LOSING money by owning a team (i.e. Dolan family and Guardians ownership, I'm looking at you). There's not a chance you can continue to own a team if you're losing money, Dolan is putting on an act by bringing on minority owner David Blitzer. David Blitzer owns sports teams for a living, leterally. Below is a list of teams that he has stakes in or owns as a majority owner.

• New Jersey Devils (NHL)
• Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) 
• Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (Yankees' AAA Affiliate Club) 
• Crystal Palace F.C. (Premier League)
• FC Augsburg (Bundesliga)
• Waasland-Beveren (Belgian Jupiler Pro League)
• Dignitas ESports

So, with that said, don't let the owners con you like that, they have an agenda just like the players do.

But the Player's Association are Making Ludicrous Asks

I can assure you that they aren't. They want to keep much of the same things they had from the last CBA, the biggest one includes lack of the salary cap and floor which they've been proud to avoid for decades. While I'm all for getting your money where it counts (which is in your athletic prime), the players seem to only want to play in the big cities (Boston, New York, Los Angeles, etc.). This is the only thing I disagree with. If you can't have a cap, have a floor. There needs to be some sort of parody, there needs to be a universe where the Guardians can play the Reds in a World Series. Two mid-markets who are no stranger now to being around late in the season.

So, What's the issue?

The lack of a salary cap (and floor for that matter) is honestly destroying competition and making the MLB boring which is why the league is losing support. You can't expect having super teams to carry the loads and take out the garbage every single year in the World Series (I'm looking at you Houston, yes, you ARE a major market). I'm tired of watching the major markets lord over mid market teams. If you watch the year Washington won, they paid out like a mid-market team and still do. According to Spotrac, the Nationals have a $92.08 million payroll compared to the Los Angeles Dodgers $214.45 million payroll (this is set for 2022). You can't expect any team below the league average payroll of about $114 million to compete well. 

There's a massive desparity that needs to be fixed, and it's the salary cap/floor. The players and owners have to fix this and agree on something, you can have a floor without a cap. It's time, MLBPA, you can get your money wherever you please. I promise you that.

Be sure to follow betJACK on Twitter for all of the latest news and much more throughout the MLB Lockout!