Along with crushing your favorite tavern and causing you to covet toilet paper, COVID-19 apparently has sucked the mojo from Minor League Baseball's opposition to MLB's downsizing money grab.
Writes the Times' James Wagner:
The economic realities of the pandemic have been so dire for some team owners that the organization known as the MiLB has increasingly appeared more open to accepting a widely debated plan by Major League Baseball to overhaul the whole farm system. Unveiled in October, M.L.B. would cut a quarter of minor league teams and realign affiliations of MiLB clubs. In recent weeks, the sides have discussed M.L.B. taking over MiLB’s independent operations.
And so it goes. Move along, people, there's nothing to see, go on, git...
Once again, Goliath beats David, Big beats Little, Peanut Butter beats Jelly, and if you don't like what's happening, "WHY DON'T YOU ASK CHINA!" Last fall, MLB owners unveiled a plan to disappear 100 years of pastoral tradition and cull a quarter of the minor league franchises across America.
The plan would kill teams in small cities that had built ballparks with taxpayer money because - well - that's how the system works, kids. Through February, the minor leagues were fighting back through elected representatives, and though they weren't going to win everything, their mobilization of political oil cans had at least some clout. Then came Mr. Corona.
Now, in a year without minor league ball - there is no chance of farm clubs playing in 2020 - the system is greased for a downsizing rout, which will favor the billionaires and leave everyone else with an emptiness even deeper than the fallow stadiums.
Because they do not have widespread TV or streaming deals, MiLB cannot consider playing games in empty stadiums, as M.L.B. hopes to do this summer. Without a season, some of the 160 MiLB teams may not survive, in effect giving M.L.B. the contraction it sought all along.
Well, that's China Town, Jake. Someday, long after we've outlasted this thing, we will regale our keepers with tales of games played in far-flung locales, with ridiculous small town mascots and Dollar Night promotions, by players who rode in buses, in parks framed by freight trains and trees... and from behind their plastic masks, we will sense they are envious, knowing that we lived in a wonderful time.
Best line from Hoss's virtual Yankee game write-up last night:
ReplyDelete"You can't hope to shut down Ji-Man Choi," manager Ma Boone said afterward, "You can only hope to contain him."
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Best line from Hoss's virtual Yankee game write-up last night:
ReplyDelete"You can't hope to shut down Ji-Man Choi," manager Ma Boone said afterward, "You can only hope to contain him."
If you're not reading them, you're missing something spectacular.
Thanks, Duque! And yes, the bonfire of the minor leagues is truly hideous.
ReplyDeleteAbove all, once this is all over, the City of New York should TORMENT our beloved New York Yankees if they try to scuttle their Staten Island franchise. Every health inspector in the city should be swarming over the Stadium during every game. Undercover cops to nail people on suspicion of underaged drinking. Fire inspectors checking for every possible violation. Elevator inspectors shutting down the cars until a thorough exam can be made.
For that matter, we should institute massive tax audits of the Yanks as a team, and personal audits of every executive who lives in New York.
This is outright theft of our money. We should not take it lying down.
The country will never be the same...not in our lifetimes.
ReplyDeleteIt is going to take decades to recover from the devastation and waste being created by our government. The trillions of dollars just "pissed way" under the rubric of " financial stimulus," will come back to haunt the nation. None of that money
is " stimulating" anything. It was badly needed, but poorly applied.
This government can't even assure an adequate supply of sanitary swabs for our health care workers. With trillions to spend, we couldn't assure even that?
The people need regular, and sustaining, financial relief but that is not what has happened. Most of the money did not go to the people. And the methods for delivering the funds were laughable, inadequate and unfair.
So now the mantra is " all is great. Go back to work."
The debt will be larger than we had after WWII. The difference is; in that case the US got all of the work, and provided all of the supplies, to re-build Europe. So our debt was easily repaid. And full employment rapidly re-attained even after all the soldiers returned.
Now, we don't have the money to repair a bridge on the Grand Central Parkway. And we are months away...if not a full year...from having an effective medicinal treatment available for millions of cases of the virus. Much less a vaccine.
Cities and states need federal financial relief, or they will soon have to lay off critical workers. This will create a plague of service failures and an enormous spike to unemployment. You think Mitch McConnell is going to help? He has already declared such pleas as " dead on arrival." What an American.
Someone needs to explain why this government seems intent on making the citizens of this country suffer, rather than help them.
I fear that we are only in the third inning of a one-sided game, and our team manager and ownership sucks.
The remaining innings can easily become far worse than what we have already experienced.
And the death of the minor leagues is just another statistic.
No one cares except those attending the funerals.
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