Thursday Cannon Fodder: strike

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Major League Baseball owners locked out the players last night. It’s the ninth work stoppage in the history of the sport, and the first since the 1994 strike that cancelled the World Series. In case you didn’t know, “strike” refers to a worker (player)-driven work stoppage, “lockout” to a management (owner)-driven one.

ESPN writer Clinton Yates has been on point with his commentary and criticism of the lockout. I’d highly recommend you read this thread and his other tweets.

In another tweet he says, “if you ever find yourself saying “millionaires vs billionaires” that means that the owners propaganda has in fact, won. Not the other way around.” He’s right.

First off, for those of you who look at work stoppages and see player greed, why are you siding with the billionaires against the millionaires? This came up with Mesut Ozil’s contract dispute and people taking sides then — billionaires are orders of magnitudes more wealthy than millionaires. Players are rich. Owners are wealthy.

We often forget that the baseball players, indirectly and to a limited extent, are also advocating on behalf of minor league players. It’s not great down on the farm. There has been plenty of good journalism done on the conditions minor leaguers face, and none of it falls into the “heartwarming story” category. Minor leaguers need help.

And finally, my overall reaction to this (and any) work stoppage is sadness. I understand why they happen. Often the concerns are legitimate and the players are trying to win reasonable, meaningful concessions. But work stoppages mean no sports, and no sports bums me out. Here’s to hoping they hammer out a new CBA.