This All Could Have Been Avoided, Continued —

Or How Baseball Screwed Up Again

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.” — Terrance Mann, (James Earl Jones).

So, in the end, The Lords of The Realm (and their puppet) folded. Out of embarrassment, shame, whatever it was, they were going to be blamed. Rich, billionaire owners and millionaire players playing chicken. Over a season that was just another into their headlong abyss after next season. In the end, Rob Manfred had no choice, play or lose. Everything.

It has never been a ‘game.’ It has always been a business. We like to think of sports as the pursuit of greatness — and it is, but there are people who make money off sport. Always has. Always will.

For four months, we have been flummoxed by many things that this ‘once in a century’ pandemic has wrought. One thing we have found out in this time, that once you shut something down, it’s hard to start back up. Schools, businesses, everything except Kroger, McDonald’s, Culvers, CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid, shut down.

Sports were no different. Within a span of 48 hours, in March, every North American and European sports operation shut down. NBA, NHL, NCAA, MLB, MLS, WNBA…