Were You And I To Blame For The MLB Lockout?
Today, one of our writers explores the idea that MLB fans played a role in the lockout that transpired leading up to the current season.
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Leading Off
Were The Fans To Blame For The Baseball Lockout Of 2021-22?
By Ben Abel
It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But when an article published in the Globe and Mail newspaper by sportswriter Cathal Kelly on March 6 suggested (or at least the title did) that fans were to blame for Major League Baseball’s recent labor strike many, including me, went “what?”
Take it for what it is - an opinion piece. But dig a little deeper into the article and think about the last two years of MLB and the challenges of the 2020 COVID-shortened season and the labor animosity that emerged there.
Kelly’s article, written before the players and owners agreed to a five-year deal on March 10, says that the foundation of the MLB labor strife is “the rock-solid belief that the fans will be back.” He argues that the fans are to blame and the reason why is that because they are suckers. Do you feel like as a fan, not of baseball, but of MLB that you are a sucker?
We were all hoping for the 2022 season to feel the most normal since 2019 largely because the pandemic interfered in 2020 and 2021. It almost wasn’t though, was it? The lockout was the ninth such stoppage, the first since the 1994–95 strike, and the first lockout of the players since 1990.
When Bill Shaikin’s piece appeared in the Los Angeles Times on March 8, he said that the 2022 labor stoppage “has made [MLB fans] lose interest in the baseball season this year, according to a new poll from the Los Angeles Times and SurveyMonkey fielded March 3-7, 2022.”
In the poll, 6 of 10 Americans said they were not baseball fans while 6 in 10 of that original group said the lockout has caused them to lose interest in the 2022 season.
When the player strike saw the 1994 World Series canceled and a delayed start to the 1995 season, the league’s average per-game attendance did not recover until 2006.
The accurate point that Kelly made in his article though is that Major League Baseball did recover, and that is the important part. Eventually, the fans came back. And stayed.
The enthusiasm that I and many have fans have now given to this 2022 season feels like we have now forgiven and forgotten all too easily the labor unrest that just passed. It is like the lockout almost didn’t happen now that the season is underway. So I came back almost without question like a sucker didn’t I. I’ll admit I did.
That’s only my experience though and not what the poll suggested at least before the settlement. I’d be curious and would love to run that poll now with the season underway and people in my circles excited to be watching the game that is loved by so many.
We all romanticize, and rightly so, the game of baseball and what it means to us collectively. The league and the players know this and they get us every time don’t they?
That must be tough for some of us to take, even me but I’m willing to swallow my pride somewhat so I can get back to watching the game I love. It’s a tough choice but someone has to do it!
Ben Abel has been an avid sports fan since the 1980s. He has contributed to Sports Betting Dime and Overtime Heroics covering hockey, baseball, and football as well as other sports. He lives in Vancouver, Canada. Contact him on Twitter @lebaneb or via email at info@abelmarketing.ca.
Extra Innings - This Day In Baseball
On April 18, 1923, Yankee Stadium opened in front of over 72,000 fans. Babe Ruth hit the park’s first home run, a two-run shot off Red Sox hurler Howard Ehmke, which helped the Yankees beat Boston, 4-1. The new $2.5 million ballpark was the first to feature three decks.
On April 18, 1950, Vin Scully called the first game of his illustrious 67-year career with the Dodgers, detailing Brooklyn’s 9-1 defeat to the Phillies on Opening Day at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. The 22-year-old broadcaster, who will be awarded the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award by Bud Selig in 2014, became the team’s primary announcer just three seasons later.
On April 18, 2007, Mark Buehrle hurled the 16th no-hitter in White Sox history and the first home no-no since 1967.