It feels strange to say this, but it's hard to get into baseball's labor negotiations right now, to try to read the tea leaves of a 15-minute meeting on Thursday, who might be willing to budge on which issues, any of it.
The owners are trying to make as much money as possible, and when they can't make enough, they're going to lock it out. Watching it happen in real time, with no regard for the sport that these American oligarchs have assumed and forsaken the role of caretakers, is both painful and uninteresting. If I wanted to watch capitalists in their final form, manipulating workers and ignoring anyone caught in the crosswinds of their greed, I could look at any other industry in America.
I hope that the players can get to a point where they feel they are getting a fair deal, because there is no win or lose in this. It stinks that so many people whose livelihoods depend on baseball, and who already have lost so much in the past two years to COVID, get screwed again by something they have no control over. The reason for wanting to see baseball in the spring is more than just wanting to see it.
As great as baseball is, and as much as it feels off that pitchers and catchers haven't reported yet, it doesn't hit that hard because of the Olympics. The NBA and NHL playoffs will follow. It starts to hit when you don't have a ballgame to watch on any given night.
If you want to read any tea leaves, it's the point in late spring when the business starts to pick up.
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