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2019-2020 Offseason:
Major League
Bologna Part 2: Cheating Is Bad But Is It Worth Going M.A.D?
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June 21, 2020 At
9:29 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf-
- While WWE (World Wrestling
Entertainment) and other similar businesses are expected to put on
scripted performances for the carefree enjoyment of their fans (with
practically no serious money on the line), MLB by odd comparison –
with a myriad of cherished, long-standing individual and team
records – is expected to religiously adhere to ancient game day
accords (with significant, daily scratch on which major sports books
plan to dine).
The holy scripture of “America’s National Pastime” ceases to be
worth the paper on which it was originally written when people (from
fans to MLB executives to “impartial” politicians) succumb to a
failure of imagination. “The Tortured Cowboys Fan” certainly aligns
with those seeking justice so righteous against those individual
players or entire organizations who believe such strict,
time-honored rules do not entirely apply to everyone.
Though some among Major League Baseball’s faithful remain prepared
to eternally hold their collective breath in anticipation of a
punishment so just in the face of yet another MLB scandal that could
– in time – “help” MLB go bust, such a desire would require an
alternate reality where such decisions are made with zero hesitancy.
So, open your mind in kind.
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- Just imagine if MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was far more like
former MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti (also known as Dr. A. Bartlett
Giamatti, former president of Yale University). What if Manfred –
within and beyond MLB – was just as respected, just as scholarly . .
. and just as gutsy?
No one within MLB's power structure wanted Giamatti to oust
Hall-Of-Fame-worthy Pete Rose, because the (pearl-clutching)
sanctity of professional baseball – "America's National Pastime" –
would inevitably and eventually face the drip, drip, drip of the
BAD publicity hose. The evidence of Charlie Hustle's gambling –
unfortunately (for the purity of the profession and those who urged
Rose to hold fast against confession) – was overwhelming. The
greatest indictment of all was that he bet on his own team, and – as
an unavoidable reward for being so stupidly untoward – Giamatti
"gifted" Rose a lifetime ban under which he and his supporters
continue to steam.
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- People may never know if Giamatti was exercising the full breath of
powers bestowed upon him by MLB owners with their collective
blessing. Trying to discover "the truth and nothing but the truth"
has – to this day – only resulted in perpetual guessing.
What if Rob Manfred did the inconceivable, the unthinkable, yet
honorable and respectable? What if he mustered the necessary
ownership votes from around league to force the "extraordinarily
troubled and upset" Astros owner Jim Crane to say farewell and
involuntarily sell (rather than a wrist-slapping one-year suspension
during which Crane could sit a very comfortable spell)? Crane (known
for never missing a detail) is allegedly far from a perfect human
being – having reportedly caused plenty of (past and unrelated)
discriminatory pain though not quite as publicly as the prejudiced
peach that was Marge Schott – but he does NOT get to pretend he was
unaware of cheating that left so many seething.
“Our opinion is [our cheating] didn’t impact the game. We had a good
team [but NOT good enough to succeed without yearlong deceit]. We
won the World Series [through artificial means that made steroids
amount to a hill of beans], and we’ll leave it at that.” – Astros
team owner and chairman Jim Crane (clearly recognizing no part in or
of his team’s dishonesty stain).
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- What if Rob “I Am A Precedent Guy” Manfred then vacated the Astros'
2017 World Series chip as – without so much cheating – Houston might
have registered as no more than a regular season blip?
What if Rob Manfred had the Astros’ "piece of metal," err,
Commissioner's Trophy repossessed
and their Minute Maid Park banner appropriately “distressed?”
What if Rob Manfred had every current and former member of that 2017
team give back their diamond-riddled rings and return their
postseason earnings (as part of a primetime ceremony to make a
cruel-but-earned example of MLB champion-turned-absolute-phony)?
What if Rob Manfred then vacated all Astros' victories which
investigators deemed to have negatively-impacted competitors
throughout the league while the Astros shamelessly schemed?
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- What if Rob Manfred then banned former Astros' manager A.J. "Never
Again On My Watch" Hinch and general manager / president of baseball
operations Jeff "Deeply Sorry" Luhnow from MLB for life? Yes,
indeed, for their complicit inaction that caused MLB and millions of
angry, ticket-buying, (SIGNIFICANT local, national, and
international) money-betting, MLB.TV-subscribing fans unforgettable,
unforgivable strife.
What if Rob Manfred then banned-without-pay Alex Cora (former Astros
bench coach), Carlos Beltrán (former player / Mets manager for a
day), "other unnamed players (Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos
Correa, and others)," and any other scandal participants for two
years for all the unnecessary pain and unearned gain?
"WHY blast the owner, former manager, and former general manager for
life and, AND go after the players with a
thousand-paper-cuts-knife?" you eagerly inquire (about a
seemingly-lopsided, would-be approach to MLB's latest dumpster
fire).
While Crane, Hinch, and Luhnow would, indeed, serve as an exemplary
collective piñata for the sports world to see, the players (the
direct, day-to-day participants in the field of play who could have
chosen to say "NO FREAKIN’ WAY!") would have nowhere to which their
tainted careers could flee.
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- For the players – who could have changed the course of pro baseball
history by “merely” playing like a team that was competitively
hungry – what could be better than a scar, err, scarlet letter?
Either “H” (for “Hacks,” err, “Houston”) or “A” (for
“Assholes,” err, “Astros”) is appropriately in play.
Heck, while the sledgehammer of judgment is being swung with such
devastating determination as only The Tortured Cowboys Fan can, what
if Rob Manfred went for the jugular and channeled his inner
colluder, err, union trust polluter, err, Peter
Ueberroth to crush the Astros’ smear of the “honorable and pure” MLB
like a moth? Yes, Jerry Reinsdorf and Bud Selig were
prominent participants in the collusion that occurred
from 1985-1987, but Ueberroth was apparently the embodiment of
encouragement to MLB’s vision of player salary management
heaven. What if Manfred was (on behalf of a bunch of
brutally-butt-hurt owners) STILL perpetually pissed over how the
players’ union (in 1975) escaped the bondage of the owners’
simultaneously cherished and insidious “Reserve Clause?” What if
Manfred was looking for ANY excuse to finally attempt to rake back a
sizeable chunk of ever-increasing guaranteed contract money from so
many cheating player paws?
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- What if Manfred locked out the union on the basis that the players’
association – “while a necessary evil, err, proud partner to Major
League Baseball” – had become rotten to the core? What if Manfred
and the owners pumped out a wild-yet-not-so-ridiculous media
campaign
to convince the public that there was no longer a valid and reliable
way to tell a cheat from those who simply brought the natural skill
and raw nerve to compete? What if Manfred was prepared to starve the
union of their guaranteed monies in a turn-back-the-clock power play
to break the players’ collective will and settle a long-simmering
score?
While Manfred and the owners might have ZERO hesitancy in an
alternate reality, the current sports universe would see MLB largely
become a self-fulfilling courtroom fatality. The CBA (Collective
Bargaining Agreement) has protective, arbitrative, even
laughably-self-exposing clauses for all of The Tortured Cowboys
Fan’s sensational situations. The discovery phase of any
solution-seeking litigation, however, would involve enough
compelling evidence (READ decades upon decades of absolutely filthy
laundry) to ensure all parties “enjoy” a permanent vacation.
And YES, that discovery – if it so pleased the court – could include
cheating by the Boston “Apple Watch” Red Sox, (alleged deceit by)
the New York Yankees, and anything else (like corked bats and “rub
some dirty on it” juiced baseballs) that might obliterate the
once-mighty-but-seemingly-teetering sport. “And, AND” the dominoes
would not just stop there, as a MASSIVE list of external business
partnerships / sponsorships would also be negatively impacted
everywhere.
Thus, limp-wristed MLB cannot just give the Astros or their players
any form of the death penalty, like the NCAA once did to the SMU
Mustangs football team, nor can they unilaterally and vengefully
break the MLBPA under the same theme. Not without miserably
acquiescing to the drama-filled popcorn pageantry of a litigator’s
wet dream.
“Once you go down that road as for changing the result on the field
[and the resultant business yield], I [willfully] just don’t know
where you stop.” – Rob Manfred (a former attorney who knows
full-well how fatally far such an otherwise honorable,
intelligence-respecting decision might cause America’s national
pastime to drop).
Cheating is BAD but – with neither MLB owners nor the union willing
to give much of a monetary inch (on attempting to “heroically” start
a COVID-curtailed season in a frustrated-fan pinch) – is it worth
going M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction)? Perhaps allowing such a
serious game to adopt such an anything-goes attitude has left
these two prickly partners with false latitude and zero compunction.
Will They Or Won’t They?
Now that MLB and the players’ union have (allegedly and at least)
agreed to full pro-rated salaries (regardless of fan-filled stadiums
or silent seating), among other details to work out is the number of
games (regular season versus playoffs) in which teams will be
competing.
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- Both parties are well-aware they have one shot to get their return
to the field reasonably right or – for the season (and perhaps
longer) – baseball fans will have to call it a night. While
accepting the Bobby Bonilla method of “earning” (deferred) money
would have been far from the worst alternative, the MLBPA held the
owners to their original, mid-march, full pro-rated salary promise,
and – with NO trust (as usual) between the parties – the players had
zero craps to give.
The most consistently-unbending player union (in all of major sports
over the past 50 years) can sleep easy knowing they did not fall for
any of MLB’s bait-and-switch efforts to, once again, allow the
owners to feel even more unwieldly rich, and yet – without a true
salary cap (not merely a luxury tax masquerading as such) – everyone
involved may have only temporarily put off the Thanos snap. After
all, being willing AND able to continually pay out mammoth
guaranteed contracts to more than just the MLBPA elite – with not
nearly the fan attendance to match the rain-making NFL (whose owners
have sworn a blood oath against fully-guaranteed contracts in their
own league) – will only make it harder for MLB to compete.
The future of MLB’s fan base looks particularly muddy from the
results of a still-valid 2017 Sports Business Journal study. Soccer
enjoys the youngest television audience at an average of 40 years of age. Next is
the NBA at 42 followed by the NHL is at 49. The PGA Tour
unsurprisingly endures the oldest at 59. While NFL viewership is
hovering at around the half-century age mark, MLB’s 57-year-old
viewer average makes their forecast comparatively dark. MLB (more
out of necessity than – perhaps – any other sport) simply must find
a way to command more (or any) of the attention of younger viewers
than Netflix and TikTok, or they could be kicked be squeeze-played
right off the block. But, BUT, first things first as MLB tries to be
the “hero” to quench sports fans’ thirst.
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- Will desperate, sports-starved baseball fans find themselves going
from ESPN's "Long Gone Summer" to "No Season, Oh Bummer?"
Will MLB ultimately prove more class than clown (in a battle of
face-saving with nobody caving) or will they simply, stubbornly
drown?
Will a not-so-sudden spike in nationwide COVID-19 infections
(including and well-beyond MLB practice facilities) utterly demolish
opening day projections?
Will Manfred survive this wicked period or – like one of his past
contemporaries – will he succumb to problems myriad? "To do the job
without angering an owner is impossible. I can't make all
twenty-eight of my bosses happy. People have told me I'm the last
commissioner. If so, it's a sad thing. I hope [the owners] learn
this lesson before too much damage is done." – Fay Vincent (former
MLB commissioner who resigned before allowing himself to bear
witness to the bottom of baseball's 1992 descent).-
- We shall see. We always do.
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