A Fan’s Plea to Baseball: Save the Hardball for the Diamond

Opening Day 2016 Photo credit: Kollin Currie

Baseball has a problem, and it’s not the pandemic, although that certainly doesn’t help. While the MLB and its Players Association squabble over the details of a labor agreement to potentially play at least a partial 2020 season, the fans are the ones being left in limbo.

While I’m not begrudging either side for wanting to negotiate, it’s time to face reality. If your fans turn on you, you’re done. Baseball already had an interest problem before the coronavirus turned world upside down. On the other hand, I would argue that the situation presents baseball with an opportunity, but only if both sides get their act together. There’s still time to do that and here’s how I think it could happen.

I’m a Baseball Fan

Before I go any further, I believe it’s important to admit your biases before moving forward with any argument. Baseball is my favorite sport, and I would like nothing more than to see them spend a large part of the summer and into fall playing games and deciding a champion. I’m not for the owners or the players. I come at this from the perspective of someone who just wants something that’s one reliable sign of summer in this craziness.

I would love to see them play a season in 2020, and it’s my assumption that both sides in the negotiations would like to see that as well in an ideal world. Obviously, for reasons I’ll go over and the rest of this post, this isn’t an ideal world for baseball, or any other industry for that matter. But I believe that regardless of whatever happens in the coming weeks with negotiations, both sides come at this from a perspective of wanting to play. They aren’t being difficult out of a desire to skip the 2020 season.

Reality Check

I think it’s important to speak to a couple of realities of the situation. One of them is related to the menace that is COVID-19. The other is arguably a bigger problem for the longer-term future of the sport. Being that it’s central to my overall position on this issue, let’s take the second issue first.

Baseball’s Fan Issue

Even before 2020 and the virus outbreak brought forth the very real possibility that any games played this season would be contested in empty stadiums, baseball had an interest problem. The fan base appears to be shrinking.

According to Baseball Reference, the last year during which season-to-season attendance grew for the MLB was 2014. The 2015 season was the last time average team attendance grew on a per game basis. Since 2014, overall attendance has fallen steadily, down by more than 5 million fans.

There’s an argument to be made that TV has made the viewing experience so good that people are less inclined to go to the ballpark, which entails paying for parking and the ticket. That’s before paying for a hot dog and maybe a program or souvenir. That’s a fair thought, so let’s explore that.

Of the four major sports, baseball, long considered America’s national pastime, ranks third out of the four major sports played in the U. S. and Canada in terms of television audience according to data from 2018. The league only ranks ahead of the NHL, which tends to have an appeal limited to certain regions of the country. I can admit that as someone sitting in Hockeytown, USA.

Any way you look at it, it wasn’t a great situation for baseball going into this, and it’s only going to get worse if they don’t play this year. Baseball is my first love, so I’ll be back. I increasingly wonder how many people like me are left.

Coronavirus Will Continue to Be a Thing

I’m sensitive to the fact that baseball players have family, and no amount of money is worth jeopardizing the health and well-being of those they interact with. Baseball players are entertainers. It’s fair to say they didn’t sign up for risking their health for the sake of providing a few hours the daily distraction. On the other hand, neither did the people working in grocery and hardware stores, garbage collectors and mail carriers. But I’ll say that it’s a bit of a different situation.

Sports are not an essential service that’s vital to the functioning of the society. If the developments with this virus itself cause us not to have baseball, football, basketball and hockey until we have a vaccine, I think that’s something Americans can understand.

There are also legitimate concerns over the resumption of sports in general. If one member of a team gets it, they would have to be isolated immediately and the rest of the team would need testing, as well as any other opponents they played recently. This would likely mean daily testing.

Given the testing situation in the U.S., this could present an obstacle. Testing of professional athletes can in no way take away from the ability of a member of the general population to get a test if they need one. This is something I think everyone would agree with on public relations and moral grounds.

However, regardless of whether it’s actually logistically possible to pull this off, that doesn’t seem to be the point of contention that’s been publicly reported for baseball. So, let’s look at what they are arguing over.

Money Makes the World Go Round

As it stands now, the main concern for both sides in this negotiation appears to be dollars and cents. Let’s go over the sequence of events briefly. ESPN’s Jeff Passan lays out the issue fairly well.

Back in March, the MLB owners and their Players Association agreed to a prorating of salaries for 2020. This would mean players would only be paid for the games that are played. Sounds fair enough. The issues started to arise when it became clear that those games that were played will likely to have no fans in the stands to start with. On top of that, even when fans do return, it’s unlikely that the stadiums will be allowed to operate at anywhere near capacity.

The players still ideally want their prorated salaries. Meanwhile, the owners have proposed a 50-50 revenue split with the players, arguing that without that parking, concession, and ticket revenue mentioned earlier, the revenue drops by 40%.

Moreover, under the owners’ proposal, things would operate on a sliding salary scale. Players who make the least would receive the largest portion of their prorated salaries for an 82-game season with players who make more money earning significantly less. For a superstar like Miguel Cabrera who would normally make $30 million, his prorated salary would be just over $15 million. On the sliding scale proposed by the owners, his salary would be just under $5 million in 2020. Let’s compare that to his teammate Christin Stewart, who makes just over the league minimum right now. His prorated salary with fans would have been $289,100. Under the new proposal, it’s $260,120.

The players don’t agree to this on principle, figuring they already have a deal, but what’s interesting is that the players who are the biggest attractions would be taking the biggest pay cut. Any agreement they would come to would probably involve meeting somewhere in the middle, but it’s interesting to look at.

Another piece of the players’ concern here stems from the fact that they feel that any change from prorated salaries could represent the imposition of a salary cap, which is something the union has been opposed to for quite a while and led to the strike of 1994. I understand this is a major issue, but as I've heard on TV so many times over the past several months, we're in a truly unprecedented situation. Therefore, both sides may have to look at things they wouldn't normally agree to.

At the same time, this exceptional situation isn't going to last forever. You could put a clause in any agreement that says something to the effect of:

The MLB and the union agree that these measures should only be in force only until such time as there are no limitations on how many spectators can enter the ballpark at the state and local level.

I'm not a lawyer, but I did watch Legally Blonde. Therefore, by proxy, I've been to Harvard Law. And now that I've offended every actual Harvard Law graduate, let's move on.

There’s Still Time

For some reason, people are convinced that this week is the be-all and end-all for negotiations, and there won’t be a season if they can’t get started by the Fourth of July. While it would be nice to have baseball back by then, I heard one radio interview this morning saying that the real deadline for the season to start would be more like August 1, with play wrapping up around Thanksgiving. Admittedly, that’s hard to envision in cold weather cities like Detroit, but there are other options still.

Why are we stuck on 82 games? People think so-called baseball purists won’t accept anything less than that. Realistically, as long as everyone is playing under the same rules, I’m fine with running a champion a champion if they play 50 you are-season games. Sparky Anderson used to say he knew what kind of team he had after 40, so that would be okay by me.

The only thing I think doesn’t make sense is if they did a one and done like March Madness. Baseball isn’t set up for that. I already hate the one-game wildcard thing they do because the rest of the year, you play at least three games against every opponent you face.

Why Baseball Needs to Come to an Agreement

The owners and the Players Association would be best served to come to an agreement for multiple reasons. Two of these make sense from a business standpoint. One is a bit more emotional, but important nonetheless.

The Money Is Still Pretty Darn Good

In my day job, I spend a lot of time looking at financial reports. This includes employment numbers. Lest those involved in professional baseball become divorced from the reality that’s confronting everyday Americans, let’s take a look at a couple statistics. As of last week, the unemployment rate in this country was 14.5%. Up until about mid-March, this rate was about 3.5%.

Meanwhile, if we look at average wages for February (the last employment report before the effects of the coronavirus on the economy were really felt), the average yearly wage in the U. S. was roughly $51,000. I’ve chosen to throw out April. While wages increased quite a bit in that month, it had to do with many low-wage workers losing their jobs as a result of state shutdowns. That means even the lowest paid players are making more than five times the salary of the average American. Additionally, many of those who are still working have taken pay cuts of their own.

I said at the beginning that I wasn’t taking a position with the owners or for the players. While talking about the players’ salaries, it’s only fair to acknowledge that the owners are billionaires whose personal fortunes won’t be to hurt by having to suffer a financial loss for one season. You also still have TV money as well as online merchandise sales.

I acknowledge that baseball is a business, and ultimately, the purpose of any business is to make money. In addition, many of these owners and players take their money and put it back into charitable organizations and even other businesses which employ people in the areas where they play. But I really hope that if they don’t play this season, the reason won’t be about solely about money.

The Only Game in Town

If the MLB gets started, it has the chance to win mind share and goodwill by being the only game in town for a while. This could be especially important for a sport that lags in popularity behind the NFL and NBA.

I know golf is coming back soon, but if you’re not fully invested, that can be dreadfully boring to watch on TV. I know NASCAR’s fast-paced, but the cars are going in circles. Yes, I know people say baseball is boring, but in comparison to these other sports, there’s constant action of some sort.

With a captive audience desperate for competition, a whole new generation of fans could be introduced to baseball. That’s an opportunity that neither party in the negotiations should pass up.

The World Could Use Baseball

It’s no secret that it’s been a long couple of months. First, there’s the issue of the virus, which nearly everyone is impacted by in one way or another. We also seem to be in a time of increasing division and unrest as a country. It’s been said in the past that sports has the power to heal.

It doesn’t work as a vaccine. It’s also no replacement for open and honest communication regarding how we're all feeling, so that if we can’t imagine ourselves in another’s shoes, at least we can attempt to understand where they’re coming from in order to be allied in a flight for meaningful, positive change.

However, baseball and all sports serve as a good starting point for finding common ground. I was on a Zoom call with a friend of mine who’s local, but the other people in the group are from England, France and Germany. Behind me, I have a poster of Comerica Park above my bed. The person in Germany left the frame and came back with a hat sporting the Olde English D. It can be the little things that bring you together. We may not agree on everything, but we also aren’t very different. We were all kids once who played kids’ games.

It would be nice if the boys of summer came back so that for a few hours each day, we could feel like kids again. Here’s hoping!

Random musings

As I near the end of my college career (I will end up one credit short of officially graduating this semester, but that's another story), I'm coming to some realizations. In no particular order:

• While doing a preliminary search for jobs earlier this month, I discovered there are (or were at the time) six reporting jobs listed in all of Michigan across the three boards I checked.
• The job situation in public relations is not necessarily much better.
• Nearly all of these jobs require two to four years experience in journalism, PR or a related field. This brings its own set of questions. Does experience on the college paper count? What about internship sites?
• It's becoming clear that if I want to do anything with this degree, I may have to make my own job and make myself indispensable to an audience that can't get enough. In my view, that should be the goal of any journalist/writer. The challenge is figuring out what you can write about in order to appeal to an audience that is loyal, but also one that is not so niche that it doesn't attract ad dollars. (Yikes.) It's challenging, but with the slow death of mass media, I may have to give it a shot.
• This really has nothing to do with anything else, but given the title of this post, why not? The Tigers just traded Prince Fielder for Ian Kinsler. I'm really distracted suddenly.
• If you're going to freelance, make sure you read the contract. Some of them include provisions that you can resell a story if it's outside a certain radius of a paper the publisher owns. Odds are it won't happen very often, but you never know when something you write might have appeal in more than one market.

Long story short, I think I have a lot I will be finding out over the next few months. I'm ready for adventure.

Golden grizzlies have positive outlook going into the softball season

Oakland University’s softball program has seen its fair share of changes during the off-season, most notably the hiring of a new head coach, Connie Miner.

Miner replaces LaDonia Hughes, who left the program last year following a 10-38 season. The Grizzlies were just 27-67 in Hughes’ two years at the helm.

Miner has previous head coaching experience at Eastern Michigan, San Jose State and the University of California Riverside.

When assessing the team, Miner believes the area with the biggest room for improvement over last year is pitching.

“Our ERA last year was around 6.50 last season and it’s very tough to win games when you are giving up that many runs a game,” she said. “It puts a lot of pressure on the defense and the offense to score a lot of runs.”

Looking to improve play in the pitching circle are freshmen recruits Laura Pond, Erin Kownacki and Sarah Hartley. Each had a strong fall season for the team.

Junior catcher/outfielder Erika Polidori said she expects the freshmen newcomers should be able to contribute early on.

“We have two freshmen pitchers coming in who look like they’re going to play a lot of innings and games,” Polidori, a nursing major, said. “We have a lot of freshmen who are going to look to start and they’re going to bring something special to the team I think.”

Miner also said they need more of the team to hit .300 this year so as to not put the pressure on any one group of players to perform every game

Polidori said Miner has spent a lot of time on the mental aspect of the game with the team.

“She’s done a lot of team building things, a lot of confidence building things, worked a lot on our skills obviously,” said Polidori.

Polidori said she thought the team beat itself a lot last year by letting mistakes pile up until they couldn’t overcome them. She said this year the team has renewed confidence.

“This year it’s going to be having the confidence and knowing that we are good enough to win a lot more games and have a much better record and have the chance to make it to the Summit League conference tournament,” she said.

Being competitive in the Summit League was a goal both Polidori and her coach emphasized.

“Hopefully I can instill in the team to have faith and believe that at the end of the year they will be in a position to get into the tournament because you can do anything if you believe something and have faith in it,” Miner said.

Miner said she will have to hit the ground running on recruiting. The late timing of her hiring means she will have some catching up to do.

“In softball, people are already looking at recruits for the 2015 and 2016 recruiting classes, so coming here I know I am already behind in recruiting some of the best players in the state of Michigan,” she said. “Of course there are kids who will develop later or fall through the cracks but because of the experiences I do not panic about recruiting like a younger coach might.”

Assistant Athletic Director for Development Gordie Lindsay said Miner was hired in part because of her ability to build a program.

“She has built two programs that were similar to ours in Eastern Michigan and UC-Riverside and had tremendous success while coaching several all-conference and conference players of the year,” Lindsay said. “She has a true passion for the sport and has a lot of experience that will help guide this program for years to come.”

In terms of strategy, Miner’s approach is varied.

“I’m not one-dimensional, I like to have a fast team but you also need players who can hit them in so I use small ball and power ball,” she said. “I think you have to take advantage of what the defense gives you.”

In addition to the freshmen, Miner expects continued success for two-time All Summit League selections Polidori and senior second baseman/third baseman Erin Galloway.

Miner said sophomore Jackie Kisman should play well, coming off a strong freshman campaign.

Brittany Prior, a junior, hit the ball really well in the fall, Miner said.

She said junior Shannon Cleveland has taken her coaching tips well and is working to improve her game next season. Junior Chelsea Carena had a good fall season as well.

Oakland opens up the season down south after spring break.

Click here  for a rapidfire audio session with Erika Polidori.

Oakland Golden Grizzlies lose road opener to Louisiana Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns

A total of 20 turnoversand general sloppy play led to the Golden Grizzlies first loss on the road at the hands of the Louisiana Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns Sunday night. Oakland's Junior guard Duke Mondy led all scorers with 30 points shooting 67 percent from the floor. This turned out to be one of the night's only bright spots.

The Ragin' Cajuns meanwhile reaped the benefits of a balanced attack, getting 15 from Elridge Moore and Mbamalu Bryant. Elfrid Payton and Shawn Long each added 14 of their own.

A cold snap to start the second half really hurt the Grizzlies. There was a six minute stretch where it seemed like they couldn't hit a shot. Despite having 16 points, Oakland sharpshooting junior guard Travis Bader could not buy a bucket from Chick-Fil-A.  He did not hit a basket from beyond the arc until after the ten minute mark of the second half.

If the Grizzlies keep having periods like these it will be hard for them to compete with the daunting road schedule they have.  Boise State will be favored at home tonight and after this performance it is hard to see how they will match up with Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Drew Valentine also had 16 points but the Grizzlies will need him to step up more in order to have a shot in the Summit League this year.

Redshirt Sophomore Corey Petros will need to be more assertive on the glass.  With his size, five rebounds just isn't going to cut it.  That said, his baby hook seems to be effective, netting him 12 points on the night.

Still, I think there is cause for concern.  Mario Impemba and Neal Ruhl on the radio call made the comment that this was a very young Louisiana Lafayette team.  It will be interesting to see how they fare against clubs with more veteran leadership.

Why Pistorius Should Run

Recently sprinter Michael Johnson said that Oscar Pistorius should not be allowed to run at the 2012 London Olympic Games, citing what he believes to be an unfair advantage given by the South African sprinter's prosthetic leg blades. The problem is, Johnson's assertions simply have no basis in fact. According to his website, Pistorius underwent double amputation as a result of being born without fibulae in both legs. He competes in both single amputee and double amputee events as a Paralympian. He holds the Paralympic records in the 100, 200, and 400 m track events.

In July 2007, Pistorius began racing other able-bodied men at an International Association of Athletic Federations event finishing second in a 400 m race with a time of 46.90 seconds. Shortly thereafter, he underwent testing under the supervision of the IAAF which found that the blades Pistorius wore gave him an unfair advantage over other able-bodied runners by enabling him to expend less energy while running at the same speed over the course of a race.

Pistorius took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport following a series of tests done by researchers at Rice University. The CAS overturned the IAAF ruling saying the initial tests only considered Pistorius's speed over a straight line distance. They failed to consider problems getting out of the starting blocks and decreased acceleration ability which actually put Pistorius at a net disadvantage.

This is the backdrop surrounding Johnson's comments.

Now, before going any further, it is only fair for me to say that as someone in a wheelchair that has been able to achieve my goals and a high degree of workplace independence, I tend to view any claim that I can't do the same things anyone else can do on a level playing field with a certain degree of skepticism, no matter the reason. That being said, I would not want to compete if I had to be given an advantage in order to make it fair. However, there simply is no advantage here.

For one, Pistorius is running on blades, not human feet. This makes it very easy to trip if you step the wrong way, a fact pointed out by one of the athletes quoted in this San Francisco Chronicle article on amputee athletes.

Secondly, the numbers just don't reflect the advantage Johnson thinks Pistorius would have. Oscar Pistorius is the world record holder in all three events in which he competes. He is widely regarded as the fastest man ever with no legs. Yet, his fastest time in the 400 m for which he qualified is 45.07 seconds. By comparison, Johnson's world record-setting time for able-bodied athletes at the same distance is almost two seconds faster.

While we're at it, the argument that he already has the Paralympics to showcase his skills doesn't hold water with me. That's like saying the Major Leagues shouldn't be integrated because we have the Negro leagues or that women shouldn't play on the PGA Tour. Both of those things have come to pass. There is also nothing wrong with someone wanting to prove himself at the highest level.

Then there's the fact that I would probably be hard-pressed to find the Paralympics on TV anywhere, so clearly they are undervalued as compared to the main Olympic events, but I could likely do a whole separate post on that.

So when I tune into the Olympics, I will be keeping a close eye on the progress of Oscar Pistorius. There is simply no place in today's society for singling out those that could otherwise compete without advantage simply because they do it in a way we aren't used to.