Dodgers: Jeff Passan On a Cancelled 2020 MLB Season and the 1994 Player’s Strike
ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan talked about the 2020 MLB season during an appearance on The Ringer Ryen Russillo’s podcast this week to share his perspective on the ongoing negotiations between the players and owners for the 2020 MLB season.
” …it’s going to come down to money. And, man, if this comes down to money, and it doesn’t happen, they have nobody to blame but themselves [owners and players]. And, the way that they will lose baseball fans and put themselves…I mean, I said it’s like 1994, I think this would be worse than 1994. I think this would be way worse than 1994 actually.”
Passan continued to elaborate on the impact that a cancelled 2020 MLB season would have on a sport that’s been hemorrhaging tv ratings and struggling to cultivate a young fanbase.
“It would take a decade plus to get people plus, to get people…you would need a whole new generation of fans and even then, what are you going to sell them on? You’re the sport that could have come back during the pandemic and couldn’t figure out how to divvy up billions of dollars. That’s what you are.”
Major League Baseball has a golden opportunity to begin the 2020 season as the first major sports league to play in COVID-19 era, but like all things, money is standing in the way. There are no simple answers to the challenging revenue or compensation questions. The owners and players who want to play the 2020 season will continue to push for compromise while the owners and players who don’t, will continue to roadblock.
NEW: We spoke to 85 sources about the @MLB plan to start the season. Even with 14,500 #coronavirus tests a week, someone will get sick. Is this plan enough to handle it? Experts have a lot of questions…https://t.co/IvHuGt4gOw
— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) May 19, 2020
A failure to come to an agreement and begin the season solidifies baseball’s current status as an antiquated institution. The Ford Model T to the NFL and NBA’s Telsa Model X.
As Passan points out, the MLB would be the league that couldn’t find a way to provide people with a welcome distraction when they needed it most.
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Whenever there has been a work stoppage or the CBA is coming up for renewal, it’s always been about the Benjamins. It’s 30 owners vs. 750 MLB players (or 1200 if you consider the full 40-man roster) fighting over how to equitably split billions of dollars. Any discussion of the fans is purely window dressing.
Exactly. Life has been challenging, and we will manage without MLB. I find it sickening, that during this time, they have the nerve to worry about money, and I’m talking about the players. Owners paid for their teams. They own them. Players just want more and more of that ownership.
Personally, and I am probably the only one who feels this way… But… With all the do’s and don’t’s… No high fives, no sunflower seeds, distancing between runners and fielder, you sit here, and you sit there, temperature taking, (regularly), no fans, no Seventh Inning stretch, no Peanuts and Cracker Jacks, no Bobbleheads, ;-), divisions split up… No, No, No!!! My family started going to Dodger games in ’65, when a family friend bought season tickets. We acquired their tickets in ’67. (can’t do that anymore), seven rows behind the Visitors dugout. $25.00, (still have my ticket stub), for the play off game, (I will call it that), when Fernando talked Tommy into letting him pitch to Jack Clark. Never forget watching Pedro throw his mitt on the ground watching the ball fly over the fence!! Ouch!!! I want a REAL season, and I will wait! My Mom turned 90 three days before the season was to start. We haven’t missed an Opening Day together in YEARS. Looking forward to her 91 birthday at Dodger Stadium. Blue Heaven on Earth!! GO BLUE!!! (p.s. I want a whole season to win Beat the Streak!)
You aren’t the only one. I agree with you 100%. I can wait.
You aren’t the only one it’s just that the stir crazy babies are louder. We can go without sports one measly year, we are living in the most technologically advanced era in our history so there’s plenty to do to pass the time and we can also still go outside and enjoy the simple things with small amounts of people it’s good enough for now. I’d rather win a legitimate championship and not an illegitimate one stripped of all the things that make it what it is. Here’s to winning it all in 2021 in a real season
Oh… One more thing… DH in the National League?!? No!!!
I have to say, the money dispute aside, the risk is high for players. It’s high for all sorts of folks. It’s not unreasonable to cancel the season. NBA, NHL are still on the shelf. It’s not safe and MLB owners asking players to make more concessions financially to do the same work under life threatening circumstances makes no sense. “Take a Covid Pay Cut” coming to a company near you. See Governor of California saying state workers need to take a 10% pay cut. Who among us can afford that and still go to work and risk getting sick and exposing our families and kids? Not me! It’s an impossible situation for players who have been blamed for labor disputes for far too long. No one is saying they don’t want to work or play. We just don’t want to die in the process. That should be a the starting point.