I’m frankly embarrassed to be a baseball fan. I never thought I would ever say that. 

Both MLB and the MLBPA have been on the precipice of being a uniting force for getting the United States out from the shadow of the Wuhan Virus. 

The MLB owners proposed an 82-game season that would start on July 4th with a revised Spring Training resuming in mid to late June. That proposal was made public on May 11th.

The NHL announced their plan to resume their season on May 26th. The NBA did the same on June 4th. Nothing has been agreed upon as of yet with their respective players unions’ but they have remained cordial with each other.

The same can’t be said for MLB and the MLBPA.

I never would have imagined that Memorial Day weekend would have had no baseball games being played. 

That weekend has since come and gone. I shudder to think they would let July 4th go by and still not have played a single game. Is that possible?

The elephant in the room has been labor unrest between the players and owners for a few years now as the current collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2021 season. 

The geniuses in charge for both sides have decided to hash out that animosity towards one another now for the 2020 season. With 40 million people having filed for unemployment and the entire populous being driven to hate one another. 

Baseball can’t seem to agree about the almighty dollar amidst all of it. 

I know there is also concern about the player’s health in regards to the Wuhan Virus. From what has been discussed between the two sides, that hasn’t been the dominant factor amongst their negotiations. The original proposal took that into account. The focus has been all about the bottom line.

The time for going to your allies in the media to bad mouth one another is over. There has been a lot of bull shit happening this year and you don’t need to add to it. 

Bring in an independent mediator and negotiate every damn day until you have an agreement. 

Does this speech from the movie Field Of Dreams mean anything to you? (starts at 1:27)

You are America’s pastime. You kept fans like myself after the strike in 1994 with the promise that you would never cancel a season ever again.

Even through the steroid era, which we all turned a blind eye to, we stayed. We learned from that and agreed to root it out and keep playing.

Have you thrown all that away now because you are both separated by a couple hundred million dollars?

Millions of Americans have made sacrifices this year. Both willingly and without a choice. While we learn from the mistakes made, you both need to realize this and quickly. 

People will remember when they struggled to provide for their own families during this time that millionaire players were bickering with billionaire owners. 

It isn’t a fair assessment, but public perception is a hell of a thing. 

You already knew that you will most likely be playing without fans in the stands for the 2020 season. They will return in droves for the 2021 season as long as you put aside this childish back and forth.

Remember that line, “People will come Rob and Tony. People will most definitely come.”