Should Fans Blame Owners or Players If MLB Season Is Cancelled

By Tony Mangia

While MLB owners and the player’s union present their proposals for the 2020 season to commence after the COVID-19 virus pandemic flattens out, a complicated financial and health concern battle is taking place between the two sides. But to fans looking in, the real question is whether the owners or the players will be held responsible for sealing or breaking a deal which ushers in a new season of baseball.

And most fans don’t care if they throw spitballs at each other, the only curve they care about isn’t a pandemic, it’s a pitch.

Photo illustration by Tony Mangia

It’s been over two  months since MLB locked its gates. The normal pent-up anticipation of a new baseball season compounded with the onset of the pandemic lockdown has left home-confined fans with a huge sports void many have never experienced in their lives. 

There were some intriguing major league storylines which were on the hot stove before the COVID-19 hit. They included would Gerrit Cole’s presence help get the Yankees over their World Series slump? Could Mike Trout win his fourth MVP — and two in a row — or are the Mets rotation and the Dodgers lineup as good as advertised. 

So without a 2020 season, fans will never get to see how many times an Astros player gets hit by a pitch either.  Come to think about it, if the season does resume with no fans in the stands, the villainous Astros might be the only team happy to welcome the stadium void because it means not getting booed incessantly at each away game. 

If the season does get a reboot, a host of intriguing developments might include how that newly instituted universal DH rule will affect the National League game strategy or how many times players get thrown out of a game for spitting. And how that forehead thermometer in the dugout becoming more important than the radar gun behind home plate?

It’ll also be interesting to see if any high-profile celebrity fans get use of the private viewing suites for a price. My money is on Jay-Z, Jerry Seinfeld or Charlie Sheen.  After all, Sheen did buy a whole seating section of an Angels game just so he could catch a foul ball.

All moot points if the season is cancelled.

Like most American’s lives, almost every aspect of MLB has been impacted by COVID-19. Besides the complete shutdown of the season, the Hall of Fame has since announced its annual induction weekend will not be held as planned this July. Instead, the Hall of Fame hopes to hold a tandem induction weekend in 2021. The draft, meanwhile, has been shortened to five rounds, with draftees receiving significantly less money over the next two years.

So, with plenty of time to contemplate — or stew — in solitude, who will the fans side with or blame if the 2020 MLB season is cancelled?

It’s logical to think that the typical sports fan can sort of relate to the players — more than owners — because most fans are usually salaried workers too. But those same fans might draw a line at that bromance with the professional athletes whom they often perceive as pampered prima donnas making in a single game what the average working stiff earns in a year … playing a game at that!

But their perception of fat cat team owners with stacks of old money isn't exactly relatable either.

So on those points, let's call it a push between blaming the owners and players.

Owners-1 Players-1.

Last week, the owners and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sent a proposal to MLBPA and the two sides began negotiations to salvage the season and, in some cases, some franchises. 

The league’s proposal includes an early July target date for Opening Day. Other plans include the afore mentioned universal DH, an expanded postseason field, precautionary health measures and a revenue-sharing plan that would lead to players taking pro-rated pay reductions. Besides the minuscule health concerns, that pay cut  — for the lighter workload —  is already a major sticking point with the player’s union. 

And, if only getting paid for games they actually play chafes the players' rosin bags, well, that  is one negotiating issue where the average sports fan will most likely side with the owners and not the players. 

Owners-2 Players-1.

Several players have already spoken out since MLB's proposal was approved by the owners and submitted to the MLBPA —  and it includes a couple of big names. But, if it comes down to these highly-paid players refusing to take a pay cut causing the season to be cancelled, this might be the last straw for the fans when they take sides.

Can you say boycott?

Adam Jones, who played 14 seasons in the big leagues and is currently with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan, called on the game's star players to speak out against the proposal. Some have, including the Tampa Bay Rays Cy Young-winning pitcher Blake Snell.

“Bro, I’m risking my life. … If I’m going to play, I should be getting the money I signed to be getting paid.,” Snell opined. “I should not be getting half of what I’m getting paid because the season’s cut in half, on top of a 33 percent cut of the half that’s already there — so I’m really getting, like, 25 percent. On top of that, it’s getting taxed. So imagine how much I’m actually making to play, you know what I’m saying?

“I’m just saying, it doesn’t make sense for me to lose all of that money and then go play. And then be on lockdown, not around my family, not around the people I love …”

A lot of people trashed Snell for sounding motivated by money and not the game, but one one of the league’s biggest and most recognizable stars backed him.

“He ain’t lying, he’s speaking the truth bro. I ain’t mad at him.” said Phillies star, Bryce Harper, about Snell’s statement. “Somebody’s gotta say it, at least he manned up and said it. Good for him.”

Snell, as well as other players on his side, might see this as righteous, but many fans see him as greedy, self-serving and ungrateful to have a job. A lot of fans remember the baseball strike of 1981 and see this 2020 showdown as another hard-headed owners vs. over-paid players battle which leaves the fans out.

Think about all of the people out of work these days, struggling to pay their rents and mortgages and actually protesting to get back to their jobs. This might be the majority of the MLB fan base. It’s definitely not the main stream media talking heads and do-nothing politicians who preach to the masses about staying home while all that time they are still collecting a paycheck.

Score another run for the league. Owners-3 Players-1.

Granted, that with fans watching games on TV in the safety of their own homes and owners doing it from sanitized suites and mansions, it is the players who are taking all of the real health risks. But how much of a threat could it be for players to play in empty stadiums, with limited and distanced staff and personnel, special transportation, sanitized housing and the best preventive measures and professionals to keep them safe? You come in more contact with people scouring the aisles for toilet paper at Walmart.

And why wouldn’t games played in front of empty stands work? Fan-less baseball games seem to be okay in South Korea.

The KBO started regular season games in early May and could be a good template for how MLB can handle playing in front of empty stadiums. The world’s third largest professional baseball league has instituted new COVID-19 rules which include: players having their temperatures checked twice a day; everyone not in a baseball uniform, including umpires and athletic trainers, wearing face masks and gloves; if a player shows symptoms, he'll be immediately quarantined and they'll close the stadium where he played his most recent game; if he tests positive for the virus, contact tracing will figure out others who need to be quarantined for two weeks. 

And while nothing will ever replace the aromas and energy of a packed crowd, maybe teams could fill the stadium with piped in crowd noise and music to distract the players from boredom?

Not exactly peanuts and crackerjacks, but it’s glimmer of hope that someday you will be able to go back.

MLB’s proposed early July starting date would be enough time to see a leveling out of the pandemic curve and allow for at least an 82-game schedule. The owners have also proposed a 50/50 split of revenues with the players and that’s where it gets fiscally complicated. 

Without paying customers, concessions, souvenir or parking receipts, most of the income will be from broadcast rights (and there should be abnormally large audiences). MLB owners have already announced that they will lose $640K per game without fans totaling $4 billion in final losses by the end of the season. A lot of specifics of the bottom line have to be plainly laid out regarding this untested and hastily-conceived revenue-sharing system between the union and owners and all of the accounting angles that comes with it. Essentially, the players will still be get a paycheck — with a pro-rated paycut —while the owners take all of the financial risks with a shortened and ticketless season. It remains to be seen if the odd coupling of owners and players can share millions in profits without driving each other crazy. 

Outside of baseball tradition and continuity, there are many reasons to cheer for the reinstatement of baseball. First of which is that it’s a return to business as usual — or at least as much a return to normalcy in our lives we could hope for right now.

It sounds like the owners have laid out some reasonable compromises where they'll be looking at a probable financial loss, while the players risk a minimal health concern and at least get a paycheck. Money is really where it all seems to boil down to so I'd give the owners a slight edge over the greedy players for taking a hit on their bottom line. 

Owners win, 4-1. So you can hold the players responsible if the 2020 season is cancelled.

And if beaning Astros and a Yankees’ World Series revenge weren’t incentive enough for baseball to get back on track, Bartolo Colon has declared that he wants to slip a uniform over his portly, 47-year-old body one last time. 

So owners and players, if not for any other reason to come an agreement, just do it for Big Sexy.. 

Imagining the "new normal" when MLB opens the gates after the pandemic lockdown

By Tony Mangia

In just a few short months the whole world has been tossed upside down by the coronavirus. An invisible scourge which has disrupted our lives in everything from work, travel to sports and leisure time. In the United States we are experiencing what seem like cataclysmic changes to our lives and not only adjustments to our lifestyles, but to our freedoms as well.

We know business closures and confinement are just temporary sacrifices everyone has to make and whether through ingenuity, humor or just plain stoicism, most of us have weathered the hard times with flying colors. 

But exactly how short-term will these precautions be? Nobody seems to know.

Just like post-9/11, our way of life changed dramatically coming out of the ashes, but slightly over the long run when you look back. Airport security had become stricter and bothersome, but a necessary task. Thanks to the shoe bomber, even removing our shoes in line has become routine (Thank you Velcro lacing) and, just like airports, stadium security at public events will see some major changes after Covid-19. 

We’ve been through cultural and personal changes due to recent hardships before and have a history of overcoming adversity through adaption and innovation which someway became the norm.

WW2 brought about rationing, blackouts and other inconvenient precautionary measures, but also begot great advances in medical and technological innovations. 

The terrorist attacks at the World Trade center was the catalyst for many security procedures and similar changes in our way of life.

On a relatively smaller danger scale, even the Tylenol scare of the 80s tamper-proof bottles and the elimination of most capsule-type over- the- counter medicines — something we are grateful and complacent about now.

We coped and we overcame.

But what will the pandemic bring once we are allowed to attend sporting events after we get the okay to gather en masse?

What new patterns of behavior will we have to endure to enjoy the stadium experience again? 

Since Major League Baseball seems about the most logical professional sport which might be reinstated this summer, we’ll start there — and with my hometown Yankees and Mets. 

This is all speculation on a lighter note and a prediction that there will be an opening day with fans this season — albeit with the new precautionary and social distancing guidelines.

Let’s imagine the anticipation of the first pitch as newly set-loose fans file out of crowded subway cars and make their way to Citi Field or Yankee Stadium — both which will have instituted unfamiliar and stricter rules to adhere — after maybe months of isolation. Never mind the logic, but will fans have to line up on little marked boxes six feet apart  ... after they stepped off those mobbed trains. I imagine that the event staff will all be wearing face masks — probably in home team colors — and all ticket punching will be electronic so there is no physical contact. Cash might become obsolete in stadium settings. 

As you pass through the turnstile an event staffer will stick a hand-held thermometer to your forehead — checking each person’s body temperature — before allowing you to pass. A cough will never be looked at the same way as before.  God forbid you clear your throat before spouting off how the Astros cheated the Yankees out of a World Series or the Mets have once again been duped out of real ownership and are whisked off to a tent with a big red cross on its side where you will  be further questioned by people in haz-mat suits inside about your physical history.  

The surreal apocalyptic environment will continue once inside inside the arena or stadium.  There will probably be those six-foot spacing boxes at every concession stand and in the souvenir shops where over-priced Purell and official licensed team face gaiters will be big sellers. No more communal condiment tables to pump your ketchup and mustard anymore. Can't have more hand contact spots or any mingling areas than you need. And in the men’s room, every other urinal will sealed so there is no close contact or chance of spraying your neighbor. Oh yeah, thefts of toilet paper will become rampant.

Every other seat or more will be closed off, so there will be plenty of elbow room in the stands. The empty seats will be filled with cutouts of Jerry Seinfeld at Citi Field and Chazz Palminteri at Yankee Stadium. Sorry Spike, your face will relegated to Knicks game — whether you are boycotting them or not.  And in The Bleachers, like those metal pigeon repellers, the aluminum planks will be proportionately spiked to keep fans at acceptable distances. It's not like barbed wire ever kept the Creatures from doing anything they wanted anyhow.

So now with the fan attendance cut down more than half, the roar of a crowd will become a low murmur — sort of like every Tampa Bay Rays home game at The Trop.

Fan behavior will also be monitored. High-fives after a score or good play will banned. So will fist and chest bumps. Fan celebrations will be restricted to rapid blinking at each other.  There will be staff on hand — with six-foot rulers — to discipline drunk social-distance offenders and fans reviving The Wave, making sure they don’t make contact with anyone in the seats around them. And the time-honored ritual of fans passing down a hot dog or a beer from a vendor over to that poor soul seated in no-man's land will also be a big no-no.  

Baseball stadiums will be netted around the entire field to prevent fans from throwing an opponent's home run ball back onto the field. And, sadly for Mets fans, Mr. and Mrs. Met broke up during the quarantine period together. She got tired of listening to him excitedly talk about the possibility of J-Lo becoming a team owner and his joke about Miss A-Rod pole dancing to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” thus giving the 7th inning stretch a whole new meaning.

There will still be fun. Mascots will fire rubber gloves — with official licensed MLB team logos — from t-shirt cannons over the nets and there will be Lysol Spray Giveaway Night. Although it's too bad the Kiss Cam will become the I’ll Just Look Endearingly At You From Six-Feet Away Cam. 

But god forbid some wiry teenager does manage to get onto the field. That will entail a complete shutdown of the game because MLB has to protect those players.

When this whole lockdown confinement is over and things get relatively back to normal, many of us will have profoundly changed forever — probably a little more introspective and lot more cautious. The idle time gave us more time to think about family, relationships, finances, politics and health. I see a kinder more grateful fan who won’t let little things bother them as much ... except maybe how the cheating Astros robbed the Yankees of a World Series.

And then we can all wait for the first NFL touchdown celebration where players act out pandemic social-distancing.

'Seinfeld's' David Puddy shows up at Devils game in full face paint mode

If you are a Seinfeld fan, and most of us are, you remember Patrick Warburton, aka David Puddy, as the Neanderthal-like, on-again off-again boyfriend of Elaine Benes who took being a New Jersey Devils fan to another level — and actually dragged a reluctant Jerry into his over-the-top fanaticism.

On Wednesday night, Puddy showed up in face paint during Game 4 at the Devils-Lightning game at the Prudential Center in Newark, and even took off his jersey to show off a painted on "D" on his chest. He could have used his fellow cast mates to finish spelling out E-V-I-L-S, but maybe Warburton was just showing off. He still looked to be in pretty good shape considering the show has been of the air for 20 years. 

Hey, this is the #StanleyCup Playoffs. You gotta let them know you're out there. LET'S GET IT ON! #TBLvsNJD | #NowWeRise pic.twitter.com/Ky8QpQeqhd

— x - New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) April 19, 2018

In the original episode, Puddy razzed Kramer over the Devils victory.

New Jersey lost last night and trails 3-1 in the series against Tampa Bay. Now it's the Devils turn to hope for some divine intervention — maybe from above. Something like three straight.

Advice columnist duped by Keith Hernandez 'Seinfeld' plot

Here's one advice columnist who definitely isn't a master of her domain — or at least of pop TV culture.

One sneaky reader wanted counsel from syndicated advice columnist Amy Dickinson and used a well known Seinfeld episode — the one when Jerry meets former MLB star Keith Hernandez and gets taken advantage of — as a real-life dilemma for the Dear Amy writer to offer some urgent guidance.

 And "Feeling Foolish" actually received a serious response back from the duped columnist:

Here's a snippet from the two-part Hernandez episode, which was first shown in 1993 — and rerun thousands of times since.

Now on to my own personal issues:

Dear Amy: I've recently run into problems with a pesky upstairs neighbor. He's a mailman ...

Jerry Seinfeld takes some credit for Yoenis Cespedes signing with Mets

Nobody was happier that the Mets signed outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to a three-year, $75 million deal on Friday night than the team's most famous fan — Jerry Seinfeld.

And the New York comedian summed up the Metsies' enthusiasm over the news with a pair of tweets: 

Yes-pedes! @Mets

— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) January 23, 2016

It even sounded like he helped seal the deal with the Cuban star.

"I reached for Cespedes, but so did another team. As I rained money upon him, I realized there had to be another way. A one-year opt out."

— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) January 23, 2016

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Jerry Seinfeld gets in Twitter war with Mets' new announcer

Jerry Seinfeld let it be known last month that he was "insanely furious" at the Mets broadcast network, SNY, for replacing former pitcher Bobby Ojeda in the booth.

And the Mets' most famous fan was still fuming after finding out that the popular Ojeda's replacement was finally named on Monday — sealing the deal.

Nelson Figueroa is taking over for Bobby Ojeda as analyst on pregame and postgame show. #mets "Booooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"
— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) February 16, 2015

Nelson Figueroa appears to have started a Twitter account after the announcement was made on Monday — and was quite civil in his response:

@JerrySeinfeld Helllllloooooooo Mr Seinfeld hoping you'll give me a chance to change your mind about me #feelinglikean'87Met
— Nelson Figueroa Jr. (@FigSNY) February 16, 2015

Something tells me this about to turn into a Twitter war about nothing. But Mr. Seinfeld? Them's fightin' words.

Jerry Seinfeld 'insanely furious' about release of Mets announcer: Report

A report that Bobby Ojeda will not return to SNY as part of the Mets broadcast team this season, and ex-Met Nelson Figueroa is in serious negotiations to succeed Ojeda, shook up Citi Field Thursday.

The popular Ojeda pitched five years for the Mets and was a part of SNY's pre and post-game shows for the team's broadcasts since 2009. Ojeda and SNY could not agree to a new deal after his contract ran out following the 2014 season, according to the N.Y. Daily News.

The news of Ojeda's abrupt exit didn't go unnoticed by some Mets fans — especially the Metsie who seemingly notices everything: Jerry Seinfeld.

The comic — and occasional Mets broadcaster — didn't take the news lightly and in his own inimitable style called for justice via Twitter:

@Robbie_Dizms @AdamRubinESPN @Mets @SNYtv I'm insanely furious!!!!!!!!!
— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) January 30, 2015

Having Seinfeld on your side is like snagging the last marble rye but, where's Keith "Pretty Boy" Hernandez when you need him?

'Seinfeld' actors reunite for Super Bowl commercial: Report (PHOTOS)

Jerry Seinfeld,  Jason Alexander and Larry David were spotted Monday walking into Tom’s Restaurant – the NYC restaurant where “Seinfeld” was filmed in the 1990′s and that the television world knows as Monk’s.

Twitter was abuzz as pictures surfaced of the comic, Costanza and "George Steinbrenner" walking into the restaurant.

Photos posted by gawkers show video cables feeding into the blacked-out windows of the Upper Westside diner, which means filming of some sort was going on.

It wasn't clear whether or not Seinfeld could be filming his web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” or they could just be filming a Super Bowl ad, according to Gothamist.

Or maybe they’re making a show about nothing.

However, a source told TMZ that the threesome were actually together to film a Super Bowl commercial. 

The exterior of the restaurant featured in all nine seasons of Seinfeld and was referred to as Monk’s cafe in the show.

 

Perhaps this is what Seinfeld was talking about in a recent reddit AMA when he revealed that he and David were getting back together for a new project.

“We wrote this script for this thing that you will eventually see but I can’t reveal what it is at this time,” Seinfeld wrote.

“All I can do is tell you that it’s big, huge, gigantic.”

And, despite the Escalade, chauffeur and bodyguard, he is still a real New Yorker.

Jerry Seinfeld joins Mets broadcast booth (VIDEO)

If you don't already get enough of "Seinfeld " reruns airing non-stop on television these days, maybe you were lucky enough to catch real-life Jerry calling the Mets game at Citi Field Tuesday night.

The star of the iconic TV sitcom and die-hard Mets fan joined old friend Keith "Pretty Boy" Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen in the SNY broadcast booth during the game against the Giants.

The comedian brought his usual sense of of the absurd to the quartet and offered a few What's the deal with takes on things bothering Mets fans (maybe not) these days. Seinfeld suggested padding the outfield walls with sofa cushions to make them safer and getting complimentary surgery for mentioning Dr. James Andrews on the air. He even touched on Hernandez's make-out scene with Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the classic hour-long 1992 episode "The Boyfriend." Hernandez sounded joyful recalling they did the scene in "eight takes."

As hopefully expected, it was a broadcast segment about nothing. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Mets' chicken goes from 'Jeter' to 'Seinfeld'

Mets reliever Tim Byrdak has changed the name of his clubhouse chicken from "Little Derek Jeter" to "Little Jerry Seinfeld."  The $8 hen— Byrdak had a friend pick up in Chinatown— was renamed in honor of the Mets-loving comedian.

The bird was smuggled into the Mets clubhouse after closer Frank Francisco called the Yankees "chickens" on Thursday.

"I told him [Francisco] the Yankees sent it over for him.  He had a look of concern," said Byrdak.

The name Jeter didn't last long — and the team decided to rename the feathered mascot.

"We're going to call him Little Jerry Seinfeld," said team prankster Byrdak— in a nod to the episode of "Seinfeld" which Kramer buys a what he thinks is an egg-laying hen but turns out to be a cockfighting rooster.

Seinfeld weighed in on his bird-brained namesake last night  and told The New York Post," As much as I enjoy the Byrdak humor, he should be aware Little Jerry Seinfeld is no chicken."

Byrdak said he had a buddy buy the bird  from a poultry market in Chinatown and believes it helped the Mets win the first game of the Subway Series Friday night.

Last night, Little Jerry Seinfeld laid a big, fat egg and the Mets lost 4-3.  

The chicken's 15-minutes of fame might be coming to an end, but Byrdak won't let Little Jerry end up in a KFC bucket.

"Does anyone live on a farm that could take a chicken off my hands?" Byrdak tweeted last night.

For now, the feathered friend was in a cage in "a restricted area" of the clubhouse.

Lady Gaga Spotted Dumping Champagne On Fans At Giants Game

Lady Gaga was seen dumping champagne over a V.I.P. railing at the end of last night's New York Giants game and, according to the New York Post, it dripped into a section of MetLife Stadium reserved for disabled fans.

It's just one more occasion where the meat-wearing singer has shown up at a New York sporting events and created a scene, or more accurately, annoyed the fans.

 There were no reports of anyone being showered by the bubbly, but it's the third arena where she's worn the home team's hat and acted like a monster.

She has a habit of showing up at New York venues and pulling some stunt, safely, from the security of her luxury box.

Last summer she even riled Jerry Seinfeld enough, after she flipped the bird to fans while sitting at a Mets game at CitiField, that he went public with his annoyance.

The comic was probably thinking: "You ever notice that people who wear food as clothing shouldn't be allowed into sporting events?"

Gaga better not wear the flank steak outfit in the Giants parking lot before a game or it'll end up on some one's grill.

A week after the Mets spectacle, the "Born This Way" singer invaded the Yankees clubhouse swilling whiskey and talking with the players.

At last night's game Gaga wore a bright blue Giants cap to go with her tutu skirt and giant sunglasses.

Apparently, she was celebrating some one's birthday and tweeted about her night.

"@#Giantsgame watching them win like Champions.  Touchdown Baby!#GoBlue," she pecked.

The Giants beat the St. Louis Rams, 28-16.

First CitiField, then Yankee Stadium, now MetLife Stadium... Lady Gaga coming to Madison Square Garden soon... and not to sing.