Major League Baseball: A Pox on All Your Houses

MLB ^ | Recovering_Democrat

[A CA Guy]

I could care less if baseball falls off the face of the earth for all times.
I stopped following them two strikes ago.

It has gotten that way with basketball also.

[My2Cents]

OK. Here's what we do: If the players actually go through with a strike on August 30th, I assume that would mean that August 29th would be the final day of scheduled MLB action. In that case, FANS SHOULD STRIKE BASEBALL SEPT. 29TH by refusing to attend the final game before a players strike. All around baseball, stadiums would be empty while ballplayers go through the motions. What a scene that would be on ESPN, not to mention the major news networks: empty stadiums, with fans protesting outside. It would be a huge statement by fans that this strike nonsense will destroy baseball.

[tomkat]

outSTANDING idea !

[crusher999]

Counsel is 180 pounds of pure talent and has incredible heart....he'll be back.

I'll bet my Mark Grace Bobblehead doll on it!

[My2Cents]

Thank you...Let's do it! We fans always complain that we never have a voice, or what voice we have, organized baseball does not listen. Having fans strike the final games before an impending strike would be an effective protest, and way to tell both sides that if they don't get down to settling their issues, we may not come back. It could be our one and only shot at telling baseball what the fans think of them.

[tomkat]

stayin' away from an O's game will be a little easier to take than oral surgery ...

[jwh_Denver]

It would kill me NOT to watch, but if this strike happens...I'M DONE!

I don't think MLB knows how rampant this sentiment is. It will hurt most of the players and it will kill the owners with their big long term contracts for millions of bucks while very few people show up at the show.

They strike? FE.

[crusher999]

It will hurt most of the players and it will kill the owners with their big long term contracts for millions of bucks while very few people show up at the show.

Actually, I'm convinced that both sides know exactly how much "Go ahead and strike, but when you come back, we won't!!!" sentiment is out there...and the players union is thinking they can use this to their advantage for the very reason you stated above.

The players "short sightedly" think that the owners are still going to pay their salaries, even when you'll be able to fire a cannon through any major league park and not hit a soul.

Somebody needs to explain the concept of Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 to these guys.

An owner with any brains, (and trust me, most of them are pretty sharp...I know Colangelo is) will shutter the doors and file bankruptcy in a heart beat.

If they do strike, I suggest they work on their people skills.

They'll need it for when they are trying to "supersize" my soda & fries at my local fast food outlet.

[Guillermo]

I like Counsell.

I don't like playing against him.

Like Bobby Cox says, "Counsell is a guy who's scrapping to make a team in April, and playing in October".

[jwh_Denver]

They'll need it for when they are trying to "supersize" my soda & fries at my local fast food outlet.

LOL! Let it all hang out. What happens if it's a special order?

Baseball must attract some crack crackers for brains if they strike. Even them talking about it p*sses me off. And most of the teams have guys starting that should never gotten out of Double A. Maybe a strike would weed some of these teams out. Thing is, who would notice?

[MeekOneGOP]

[BluesDuke]

Babe is, even as we speak, composing his own piece (to publish at The Polo Grounds) in a couple of hours. And, yes, I plan to post it up here on the FREEP. 'Tis a dirty job, but someone has to blow away the smoke, the shuck and jive, and the fires that baseball's mandarins can't resist dousing with gasoline while accusing the gas makers of arson.

We try every way we can do to kill this game, but for some reason nothing nobody does never hurts it. Sparky Anderson, call your office. Club Bud is doing its damnedest to make a liar out of you.

[HassanBenSobar]

I sometimes wonder how the ballparks are being filled for games, when it costs so much to go (tickets, parking, concessions, etc).

As others have said--players unions, what a crock. Oh, the poor exploited baseball player, working 100-odd games a season, earning 2.5 mil a year. Waaah! Please, can I pay more than 50 bucks a ticket to support them, plus my added taxes for the new ballpark? Where's doug from upland when you need him: "take me out to the fleece game...take me out to the crooks...buy me some overpriced crackerjack, when will I get my wallet back...etc"

[doug from upland]

Great ideas for the song. Let's see if I can do "take me out" or perhaps "Put me in coach."

[HassanBenSobar]

Try this:

Take me out to the con game,

Take me out to the crooks

Buy me some overpriced crackerjack

When will I get my wallet back?

For it’s loot, loot, loot for the hometeam,

If they don’t win—all the same,

For it’s $one, $two, $three mil

you’re rich at the old con game

[doug from upland]

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME

[jimkress]

You want to punish the millionaires who can't agree with the billionaires on how much to screw their fans? Call your Congressman and Senators and insist that Baseball's anti-trust exemption be removed. Let's see how well these spoiled, prima-donnas can compete in a REAL free market!

[supercat]

Has anyone considered that expansion was responsible for salary escalation, and that league contraction would reduce salaries?

[hove]

"In your opinion, does it suck because you don't like baseball or because of the political and financial problems associated with it? If you're not a baseball fan to begin with, what's the point of coming to a thread like this and complaining about it? And if you're a fan of baseball, but not the way things are run, why not elaborate on what football does that baseball can learn from?"

When I was a boy back in the sixties, my buddies and I would take our shiny new 6 transistor radios to school to listen to games at recess. Baseball was exciting all the way to the World Series. But baseball, like most of pro sports, has become perverted by the money. The ownwers have no control over their spending.....and the players think they are the owners and deserve the bulk of the money. Players are shifted from team to team every year. And in MLB, the team with the richest owner buys up the latest batch of stars and wins a series. With 9 strikes in the last 30 years, the players prove to the fan that it's all about the money. Maybe I'm older now, and I can see what MLB is really about. But it just seemed more real....more interesting back in the sixties...when I was a boy.By the way...this is true now of all pro sports. That is why I like college football. It's big time sports....and it is much more fun than MLB!

Also, if I had control of any pro sport, I would cap a players salary at $1mil. Period. That would be the tops. That is all any player is worth. If a player complains about all the money the owners make, I would tell them to save up a couple hundred million $ and buy a team. The owners risk their capital....they should make most of the money! The owners have blown it. They need to fix it.They need to get together and tell the players...in all pro sports....that the gravy train years are over. And if they want to quit...so be it. They can go get a job in their college major.....communications.

[Mr. Mulliner]

good answer