FUNNY.- It remains for doubt what was the reason, what motivated, the smile so evident that was reflected on the face of commissioner Rob Manfred when announcing on Tuesday the cancellation of the opening games and the first series of the eventual Major League season. A campaign, by the way, that is in “we will see” and that now it is very likely that it will not be carried out. A smile that for many meant ridicule or cynicism, acknowledging with the gesture that the current negotiations have been, until now, in vain, if not useless. Manfred smiled perhaps because he is serving his bosses, the club owners, who are accountable to no one else. So far it is clear that neither party, neither MLB nor the Players Association, is going to fold hands, that none of them wants to fold hands because, as the ultimate goal, the intention is to get up from the table calling themselves “winners” of a battle in which it seems that everyone will lose.
Characterizing the fan as the great victim seems to be the right idea, although not everything is for the fan. If the business has become great, both for clubs and baseball players, it has been largely thanks to TV, to the money that has been put into the product, as much as to make the greed of both parties grow to disproportionate levels. The trains collided, the balances are already perceived, and as much as they say no, the fan can only be a mere spectator. And let everyone choose his side.
I REMEMBER.- At the end of the 1980s, signing Nelson Barrera was a feat after the third baseman, already a star in national baseball, each year put more and more conditions to stamp his signature, at least in winter with the Tomateros de Culiacán. The task that the owner of the club, Juan Manuel Ley, assigned to his then adviser, Jaime Blancarte, was to get in touch with Nelson, sweeten his ear and leave things as they were. It was the beginning of the dance, the director began to seduce, the ball player to put himself in a rejego plan. It was known in advance that the arrangement had to be made between Ley and Barrera, without intermediaries. The first call arrived and the “no” was expected beforehand under any excuse, most of the time with Nelson attributing to the “Arab” (Roberto Mansur, then owner of Diablos Rojos) alleged intentions and plans that hindered the firm. No one talked about the obvious: the issue was money, one wanted to earn more, the other not to spend more. Everything was left for quarter to twelve, both parties already urgently, and there was no shortage of occasions when it was the player himself who made the call, set an amount, the manager accepted and it was fixed. They were different times.
OPTION.- Very few doubt that the decision of the Olmecas de Tabasco club to opt for the Macuspana pseudo-stadium has very little sports content and plenty of political reasons. That the LMB approves that one of its teams play in that “something” that they denote as a stadium seems to us to be a serious mistake that remains in sports because in politics, it seems, it is a complete success. The photos that have been released show that the optional venue does not come very close to what should be required of a stadium that hosts professional baseball, with a maximum capacity for 3,500 fans, which, even ironically, seems like a lot. for what captures the ninth of Tabasco. If the decision is upheld, it will be interesting to see how the brand-new “great hires” of the summer ball frolic there and interest arises from now on to know their opinions of such unusual facilities. Although they can be anticipated. But for the club, owned by the Government of the State of Tabasco, that is the least of it, as much as for the LMB itself: someone from the National Palace will be happy and proud that their countrymen have their “welfare show.”
#Rob #Manfreds #smile