The 2020 baseball season remains in flux due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a new payment dispute between Major League Baseball’s owners and players has also cropped up.
Speaking on Boston Public Radio Friday about what the back-and-forth could mean for baseball’s future, NBC Sports Boston anchor and reporter Trenni Kusnierek said she wasn't encouraged by the infighting, and described it as “billionaires fighting millionaires.”
Kusnierek gave some credit to the argument from MLB players, who could be facing pay cuts ranging from around 25 percent up to 80 percent for the most expensive players.
"The worst part about this is, the players aren’t entirely wrong,” she said. "If this was any other time in our nation’s history, I think most of us would look at this, look at the owners and say, ‘You’re being greedy jerks.’"
She continued, saying, “my problem with it is, it’s been fought so publicly, and the crux of it the entire time has been so much about money and wanting as much as they possibly can.”
“To me, it’s so … talk about tone deaf,” she said.
On Thursday, the MLB Players’ Assn., the union representing players, said they “resoundingly rejected” the proposed cuts.
"This might be what does baseball in,” Kusnierek said, drawing comparisons to the MLBPA strike of 1994. “[Players] came back after the strike in ’94, but it was a different tone. Could this be the end of baseball? I don’t know. I hope not, because I love baseball, but … even me, I’m like, ‘eugh. ... This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.’"
