The Bicker Twins of Summer

It's absolute death to this industry 

to keep acting as it has been. Both sides.

We're driving the bus straight off of a cliff.

How is this good for anyone involved? 

COVID-19 already presented

a lose, lose, lose situation and we've somehow

found a way to make it worse. 

Incredible. 

-Trevor Bauer

Cincinnati Reds

Note to the power brokers of MLB, irrespective of whether you are an owner, a player, or the Commissioner.  When Trevor Bauer is the voice of reason for your industry, you really need to take a good, hard look at yourselves.  All kidding aside (and Mr. Bauer delights in saying the outrageous), while it is not often that I find myself nodding my head in agreement when reading something he says, I am doing so now.  

The realist/pessimist in me tells me that this absurdist drama in which MLB and the MLBPA have engaged for the past several weeks is going to be rendered moot.  We the people of these United States, channeling our inner toddler, have proven time and again we are unable - or worse yet, unwilling - to put in the hard work necessary to win the battle against COVID-19.  The reticence is not an expression of freedom or patriotism or any other "go jerk yourself off quietly in the corner while the adults talk amongst ourselves" mantra.  It is selfishness. Plain and simple.  

All across this country, as college athletes have returned to their campuses in preparation for fall sports (hello, college football) and have been tested for COVID-19, positive tests have abounded.  As of June 23, 2020, my Alma mater reported that four Buffs have reported positive since CU began testing its student-athletes on June 1. Coach Schiano reported on June 22 that two of his Scarlet Knight football players had tested positive and four of his players were in quarantine.  LSU, the defending national champions, quarantined 30 of its football players after each either tested positive for COVID-19 or had contact with a teammate who did.  Clemson, which lost to LSU in the National Championship Game, announced that out of the 315 members of its athletic department tested in June, 28 had tested positive for COVID-19. 

Furthermore, as the two sides fiddled while smoke poured out of various edifices in MLB's Rome, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays each shuttered their spring training facilities in Florida in response to employees testing positive for COVID-19, which prompted MLB to close all spring training facilities.  The closings are temporary, or so MLB hopes.  

We're doing irreparable damage to our industry

right now over rules that last AT MOST 16 months.

WTF kind of sense does that make? 

-Trevor Bauer

Cincinnati Reds

-AK