3 reasons to support the Milwaukee Brewers players in the lockout
By Todd Welter
Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day is always special in Wisconsin. After slogging through the brutal winter cold, hearing Bob Uecker’s voice and the crack of the bat is one of the first signs that warmer weather is just around the corner.
The special day will have to wait.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced the official Opening Day, and the Milwaukee Brewers’ first two home series have been canceled.
This is because Major League Baseball’s owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association failed to come to a new collective bargaining agreement to end the MLB lockout.
When actual games will happen is beyond anyone’s guess right now.
It is hard to pick sides when billionaires fight with millionaires. This lockout comes down to money and the rich players fighting for their slice of the pie from the richer owners.
Not exactly a great look during a time when people lost their jobs during a pandemic and prices for everyday goods are rising because of inflation.
Although, in this case, the reason there is no Milwaukee Brewers baseball is that the owners are trying to keep more of the pie for themselves.
Revenue and profits for teams have risen and players’ salaries have stayed mostly stagnant.
While the top players’ pay has risen astronomically, it is baseball players’ middle and lower class—the everyday veterans and rookie players—that are seeing meager gains.
Yes, the pay for baseball’s middle and lower-class players is still really good compared to other industries.
Here is the thing before you say the players are making millions—the players are the product.
No one is going to American Family Field to see owner Mark Attanasio sit in his suite. The World Series is not won by the team with the best balance sheet.
Attanasio has seen the value of his $223 million purchase of the Milwaukee Brewers balloon to well over a billion dollars.
Attanasio has taken some losses since taking over the team in 2005. He has more than enough equity in the team to make up those losses, just like the rest of his fellow owners.
That is why I beg you not to buy the excuses the owners are trying to sell when they cry poor.
The owners are acting, as Junior Soprano once said during a Sopranos episode, like a person walking around with Virginia ham but crying about being hungry because that person has no bread.