Do Care, Don't Care

Other people keep telling me what to think about the baseball lockout, and I don’t care much for what they have to say. Let’s start with pitcher Max “Porsche” Scherzer. Or should I call him Ghost? Either way, Scherzer wants a 14-team postseason where the higher first-round seeds—and isn’t that a term that just attaches itself to the national pastime?—would not only get home-field advantage for the full five games, they’d also be staked to a one-game lead. For anyone who thinks this is a stupid idea (I do), consider what MLB is proposing. The poohbahs want a 14-team postseason format where some teams get to pick their competition. Oh, the owners must’ve picked this up while listening to fans, as they want the world to know they do. Nothing like a little cockamamie to burnish the image of the national pastime. And then I read an editorial in today’s Tribune: Play Ball! This is not the moment for owners, or players, to put greed first. If anyone involved with this piece knows baseball as a business or sport, you could’ve fooled me. Like it or not, baseball is a business that generates oodles of cash. The tug-of-war over who gets what is inevitable and wouldn’t rate so much national attention if we were talking about John Deere or Starbucks. The editorial also thinks fans don’t care about the economic issues involved, ditto a pitch clock and defensive shifts. Funny, but I do. Heck, I even care about the price of concessions. Last year, the Orioles were charging $10 for a beer. The Mets topped the O’s by $1.75. They also had the nerve to gouge fans $7 for a hotdog. Ed Bukowski would not be amused. I care about the time of a game and the cost of a game. If only players, owners and editorial writers did, too.