Reactions to baseball's labor dispute often ring true but aren't realistic

Baseball's owners and players met for 15 minutes the other day. That's a lot of time in baseball. Maybe enough to play a half-inning.

The negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement have elicited the usual reactions from fans and media.

A pox on both houses. They're killing the game. I'm never going back. You must start the season on time. Why should we care about an argument between millionaires and billionaires?

These sentiments ring true emotionally. They're not realistic.

Let's tear into them.

A pox on both houses

Baseball is a billion-dollar business, and each side has experienced the pain of unfavorable CBAs. The owners dominated for many decades, paying players relatively low wages and restricting player movement.

Marvin Miller fought for player rights and higher wages, and eventually won, with the help of Curt Flood and a determined union membership. Then the players proved that the owners could and would spend obscene amounts of money on free agents, destroying the notion that the owners couldn't spend a lot and survive.

The players and owners are negotiating an incredibly complicated deal in which both sides are trying to predict what baseball's financial future will look like. Make a mistake or an unnecessary concession in these negotiations and it could cost your side a massive amount of money. Of course, both sides are going to be paranoid and cautious.

These are billionaire businesspeople negotiating with player agents, players and lawyers. Both sides view these meetings as battle royales. Both want to win in this arena as much as they want to win baseball games. It's foolish to think either of these groups would give major concessions just to settle fans' stomachs.

They're killing the game.

Chart the game's annual revenues and player wages throughout baseball's history and if you didn't know that the game had suffered through work stoppages, you would see skyrocketing amounts occasionally interrupted for a year.

Baseball has many problems, but it will continue to sign massive media deals and draw several million fans in every market that fields a winning or traditionally strong team, and franchise values will continue to rise.

I'm never going to another baseball game.

This sentence is usually uttered by people who rarely pay for a ticket anyway.

You need to start the season on time.

That would be convenient, but the usual spring training of six to seven weeks is far longer than it needs to be, and the 162-season probably should be shortened in a sport where hardly anyone has enough pitching, and a lot of games are played in too-cold weather.

Why should we care about millionaires and billionaires?

You don't need to. You can ignore the negotiations and start caring again when the games begin or a deal is reached.

This, though, is classic both-sides thinking. And both-sides thinking is almost always faulty.

There is no comparison between millionaires and billionaires.

Billionaires are insulated from real-world problems. Not only did most billionaires thrive during the pandemic and its simultaneous recession, but many billionaires were created during what were difficult times for many Americans.

It would take grotesque mismanagement for a billionaire to become a mere millionaire.

A millionaire can become a thousandaire overnight. One bad investment, marriage or Maybach could do it.

Plus, almost all billionaires have investments that will pay massive dividends. Like baseball teams. Carl Pohlad bought the Twins for $32 million and it's now worth maybe $1.4 billion.

Millionaire baseball players earn relatively lots of money when they're young and cocky, and may establish unsustainable lifestyles. These millionaires may eventually have to coach a high school team to make a living. They shouldn't be pitied, but many who reach the majors are hardly set up for life.

A billion is one thousand million. As Chris Rock once said, there is a big difference between being rich and being wealthy. You can't mess up wealth, even if you mess up in CBA negotiations.