COULD WE BE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING WHILE WATCHING THE WORLD SERIES?

Source: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Well, another day, another theory and another possibility that the 2020 baseball season could still be feasible. The best story I read today came at the mouth of St. Louis Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr during an interview on 590 The Fan. The outspoken baseball leader made some poignant comments regarding the mistrust between baseball and ownership, full salaries and the crazy notion that we could have baseball in December.

Source: Yahoo Sports

“At some point we do have the right to implement a season and pay full salaries and the only way it makes sense is with a shorter season,” he said. “And that’s I think the way it’ll turn out," said DeWitt. In doing so, he said that owners want to get in as many games as possible and perhaps push the season as far back into the fall as feasible.  Could that mean we are Christmas shopping while checking scores of the World Series? Potentially, but not likely.  On Wednesday, the owners proposed a schedule with 89 games. Yet, with baseball on fans minds, maybe the purchasing power during the holidays will give baseball a chance at making up for some lost revenue in merchandise.

"The Cards’ chairman left little doubt as to where the league sees its leverage. “We understand that if we implement a season — a shorter season — that they will get full pay but in total they’ll make less money,” he said. “So it really doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to continue to hold out,” said DeWitt.

Source: NY Post

DeWitt spoke articulately about the mistrust between players and owners, which clearly poisons the punch even more when it comes to baseball as a sport and of course, the 2020 season.  He does say that baseball will rebound as it always does but it is not nearly as profitable as one would think. Sigh. Hard to believe as ticket prices are through the roof, media contracts and merchandise all add money to someone's pockets.

That's your Wednesday scope courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors and the Cards chairman. Let's see what's next in the 2020 baseball saga as June moves from single digits to double digits and the days go by. Here's hoping we hear something, one way or the other.  The waiting is almost worse than no baseball at all.

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof