It used to be said that baseball was the one sport that had no off season. It was talked about all year long. That’s why the term “hot stove league” was started, to describe the part of the year where the game wasn’t being played, but trades were being discussed and free agents were being signed.
That’s not true now. Other sports have gotten wise to this and have extended the relevance of their games during the periods where the action isn’t on the field.
Heck, in Cleveland, the sports talk shows discuss the Browns 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If your team isn’t playoff caliber, the draft talk starts during the season, as soon as it is evident the playoffs aren’t the goal.
You also have mini-camps and the beginning of training camp. Really, the only dead time for football is the period after the draft until the end of July.
In the NBA, as soon as the playoffs end, usually in the middle of June, you have the draft right after, and then in early July comes the free agency period, and there is a flurry of trades that go along with that as well. Once that ends, basketball kind of hibernates until training camp starts in September.
However, right now, baseball has gone silent because the owners have decided on a lockout to apparently try and break the strongest union in professional sports. So, instead of trade rumors and speculation on where free agents will sign and for what kind of money, we get nothing.
Baseball has disappeared from the sports consciousness, and if the parties can’t come to an agreement, apathy will set in. And for a sport waning in popularity over the last couple of decades, that’s suicidal.
It is easy for writers and broadcasters to side with the owners, because the players job is “playing”, something every kid who likes sports grew up wanting to do.
We side with the players though. Why? Because they are the product. No one goes to Progressive Field to see Paul Dolan own the Guardians. Fans buy tickets to watch baseball, and baseball is played by players.
Unfortunately, it appears the two sides don’t seem to want to get to the bargaining table to work out the differences any time soon.
We are sure the owners figure as long the new CBA is in place by spring training, then everything is fine, but in the meantime, there is no talk about baseball. The game is out of the sports point of view.
Meanwhile, the NBA has its slate of Christmas games, the league will be on TV all day. The NFL is coming down the stretch of its regular season, and there are plenty of games that affect the playoff landscape.
It seems odd that a tactic in trying to grow your sport is taking it out of the public’s eye. As Pepper Brook in Dodgeball said “it seems like a bold strategy”.
Rob Manfred and his owner friends will tell you they are trying to save baseball, but really, they are trying to kill it. Odd, because it makes all of them a boatload of cash. And yes, more cash than any player makes.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 