Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain King
The idea that the players have "negotiated poorly" or been "asleep at the wheel" in past negotiations is just ridiculous.
The owners have been bullying the union for years. The players want to play baseball, so have given in. Now, when the players actually stand up for themselves just a little bit the people who say they were swindled previously automatically call them selfish. It is appalling.
The players proposal at the beginning of this was a decent middle ground. The owners have chipped away at that to the point where at best the current MLBPA proposal isn't a major loss.
The owners are waging a press war. They leak that "things are close" then say the union isn't playing ball when a deal isn't signed. The reality is things have yet to become close enough to warrant those leaks, it is tactic. Anytime MLB has moved significantly at all they've introduced something new to stick a wrench in things. They keep issuing deadlines and ultimatums for no reason and then cutting off negotiations when the Union doesn't fall in line. It is a ploy, as MLB is back at the table a few days later.
The players are the face, so MLB uses their media power to leak things specifically to generate fan pressure against them. They didn't need to issue the lockout and they didn't need to cancel games, those are simply negotiation ploys. April games are nothing to the owners...especially when they can cancel them, still collect the TV money, and also say they won't pay the players for those games THEY decided to cancel.
Meanwhile, they hide behind fans' love of the logo. It's funny that the league doesn't use that media power to actually promote the players any other time...can't have them getting popular to the point fans won't turn on them.
MLB is running this strictly as a business and they are finally getting a business (albeit still a weak one) response from the Union and honestly, this is exactly what they wanted. This thing won't become real to the owners until TV money is truly in jeopardy.
|
The 'asleep at the wheel' quote comes from Scott Boras, who is without a doubt playing a key role behind the scenes on the players side. (( think he represents 4 of the 6 players on the negotiating committee). So if you consider it ridiculous......
As for the rest - everyone is entitled to their opinion.