It seems unlikely we’ll get to watch the St. Louis Cardinals play baseball this year
It looks, after the latest fruitless exchange between Major League Baseball owners and players, it seems like we’re down to two options: a 48-game season or nothing.
Owners flatly rejected the suggestion of the Major League Baseball Players Association of a season that could include up to 114 games filled with double headers and running to at least Halloween. Meanwhile players shot down the proposal of owners that a shorter season be played — and that athletes take even less money than they agreed to accept in March when spring training was stopped and there was no expectation that when games resumed they would likely be held in ballparks without fans.
It certainly seems that games in empty parks would be the best we could hope for. With the St. Louis parks department canceling all summer recreation leagues, I doubt there is little chance the city will allow 40,000 people to get together to watch the St. Louis Cardinals play baseball at Busch Stadium.
I’m still torn about whether I want to see baseball played at all under such circumstances. I truly love watching baseball. Even on television. It’s great to come home from a day of work and have such a simple joy to look forward to. But it doesn’t feel appropriate to go through such gymnastics to try to find some way games can be played just so the record books show that baseball was played in 2020.
The playoff proposal with many more teams than usual getting a free pass into the post season tournament cheapens the World Series, which is usually won through a grueling six-month-long marathon, not two months of exhibition games followed by short series where anything can happen. Anyone who watches the game knows that teams are built to have deep enough pitching to make it through 162 games. When you get into a seven-game series, two hot starters and two strong relievers could give a flawed team an advantage when that club wouldn’t even qualify for the postseason in most years.
I admit that NASCAR has managed to gain some valuable attention in the vacuum of sports that currently exists. Fans are hungry for any sort of live sports to watch. I might even watch curling if that was all that was on, for crying out loud. The short term benefits would be certain, but what we have to live with five years from now is questionable.
What if Mike Trout suffers a career-ending injury in a throwaway season. What if Cardinals young ace Jake Flaherty tears his elbow ligaments and misses all of 2021 after Tommy John surgery? What if those players chose not to play at all and it leads to a team that obviously has no business winning a championship walking off the field after the last game with the Commissioner’s Trophy.
I wish some alternative could be put together. Put an old timers league together with players who have been retired at least three years. Put a league of players who aren’t top 50 prospects and give some guys who aren’t making a living right now a chance to make a few bucks. Come up with something to entertain the fans that doesn’t look like a cheap imitation of big league baseball. And do it fast. Otherwise it looks like the best option is going to be to shut things down and hope for the best next spring.
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Scott Wuerz is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. The Cheap Seats blog is written from his perspective as a fan and is designed to spark discussion among fans of the Cardinals and other MLB teams. Sources supporting his views and opinions are linked. If you’re looking for Cardinals news and features, check out the BND’s Cardinals section.
