MLB Can’t Get Out of Its Own Way

BUCK: I have Clay here for some of these areas where I’m just, “Mmm?” have no idea what’s going on. So there is apparently an MLB — Major League Baseball, I actually need to keep that in mind — lockout going on, and Commissioner Rob Manfred was asked some questions. Here’s how that went.

VOICE: Hey, Rob, understanding the deadline to create urgency; you locked out the players to jump-start negotiations. It feels like real bargaining went on just in the last 24 to 36 hours. I’m sure people are wondering why not over the last three — three months or even longer to get to a point where you’re not necessarily canceling games because there’s some momentum here.

MANFRED: Yeah, I think the — the best answer to that question is the last 10 days. We’ve been here ready to bargain — full committees, owners, players for 10 days — and it got going two days before the deadline. You know, that’s the best explanation I can give you.

BUCK: Clay, just from a layman’s perspective, we haven’t had sports, really. It’s been on and off. How can they not be all fired up? What’s going on?

CLAY: So, the season was supposed to start on March 31st. And what they’ve effectively done is now be unable to get a resolution, a collective bargaining agreement between the players and the owners that they can agree on. And so they’ve knocked out the first seven games, effectively, of the season. Now, they play 162 Major League Baseball games.

And the relationship between the players union and the owners has been particularly contentious for some time now, and certainly covid I would say just kind of added fuel to the fire over this situation. Because a couple of years ago if you’re a baseball fan, they couldn’t figure out how to get the season back started and they only played a 60-game season. And so I am a baseball fan, Buck.

But I’m not a die-hard, right? It doesn’t really matter to me what’s happening in April, May, and June. I’m gonna take my kids down to Atlanta Braves. We’ve got a great affiliate station right there in Atlanta right by The Battery, the park where the Atlanta Braves — the World Series Champion Atlanta Braves, by the way — are playing. And not to cast aspersions against them, but you and I are actually gonna be down in Houston. And the last time I was down in Houston was for the World Series. We’re doing a big event on Friday, and we’ll be doing the show live from Houston on Thursday and Friday. Our friends Jesse Kelly and —

BUCK: Michael Berry, KTRH.

CLAY: They’re putting it together.

BUCK: Yeah. KTRH is our affiliate station down there, which we’re really excited that they’re gonna be hosting us.

CLAY: We’re number one in that market. We like to say hi to everybody down in Houston. And there gonna be several thousand people at that event that Michael Berry’s put together on Friday that should be really cool and we’re excited about. The last time I was there was with the World Series I went and watched the Astros play against the Braves. It was an awesome time. Maybe I’m in the minority here but I don’t really care that much if they play 140 games or they play 120, they’re not gonna cancel the season.

Eventually it’s going to get worked out. And the fact that they’re not playing 162 has not really got me that riled up, but it is a big story. And if you’re a die-hard baseball fan, there are a lot of people, Buck, who just feel like baseball can’t get out of its own way. If we’d been doing this show 50 years ago, I would have said, “Hey, there are three sports that matter in America today: Horse racing, boxing, and baseball.”

Obviously horse racing and boxing but for every now and then major events, we really don’t pay attention to in the nation, and baseball is kind of hanging on there. But it feels as if baseball continues to shoot itself in the foot over and over again. And this, for many people, is just the latest symptom of the players and the owners not being able to get everything moving in the right direction to both end up on the same side of an equation where fans can just be able to watch the games.

BUCK: It is fun to go to a baseball stadium.

CLAY: When’s the last time you went to a baseball game?

BUCK: Oh, gosh. 20 years, probably.

CLAY: (laughing) Twenty years?

BUCK: Probably 20 years.

CLAY: What I love about going to baseball games is I like to just go with buddies or take my kids, have a couple of beers, get a hot dog. Baseball is one of those great sports where you can go and just chill. There’s a high level of intensity, it feels like to me, when you go to a football game. There aren’t that many of them. They matter so much.

For basketball, certainly when you get into the postseason, it feels a lot more intense. Hockey, I think it’s hard to play at half speed. Baseball feels like the rhythm of the summer, and, man, I love when it’s a great night, perfect weather just to go sit out. I’m surprised you haven’t gone and checked out the new Yankee Stadium.

BUCK: I think I did maybe 10 or 15 years ago. I have been to the new Yankee Stadium, and I did get to say when I was in high school, by the way, got taken to a World Series Yankees game.

CLAY: Oh, that’s pretty awesome.

BUCK: Which was pretty cool. I do remember that.

CLAY: That intensity is electric for a game like that.