Baseball. America’s pastime. This phrase almost seems laughable at the moment. We are going on three months without the major sports being able to step foot on their respective playing surfaces due to Covid-19. NASCAR and the PGA have recently started holding events again. The world needs sports.

The NBA and NHL have plans together to return to their season barring any major setbacks. The NFL has plans in place to do the same thing. Then you come to Major League Baseball. Depending on what day it is, the direction of the wind and whatever side the coin lands on, we will or will not have baseball in 2020.

Work stoppages happen in all sports. In 1994, the World Series was cancelled due to a work stoppage that year. The NBA only played half a season during the 1998-1999 season and then again in the 2011-2012 season. The NHL cancelled an entire season due to a lockout in 2004-05. We’ve grown accustomed to these labor negotiations and what that could potentially mean to our favorite sports.

This feels different, though. MLB and the players association are fighting over the terms of the 2020 season and how many games it should be, the playoff format, etc. One of the big problems though, is the amount of pay the players will get. Back in March the two sides agreed on a prorated salary structure for the players. Now the owners want to pay less than the prorated salary and the players are saying “no” to this idea.

I’m not here to discuss who is right and who is wrong. What I am here to discuss is the why. This country has been hit hard economically by the Covid pandemic. Governments decided to shut businesses down for a period of time and some of them never recovered. Some of the businesses had to lay off people to survive. Some businesses had to shut their doors for good. Approximately 46 million Americans have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

So, my question to baseball is this: who do you think is going to pay your salaries? The player relies on the owner and the owner relies on the consumer. The diehard baseball fan will still be there. I get that. What about the casual fans though? They’re the people that come to a lot of the games throughout the year. They bring the family. It’s a guys night out trip. The boss takes clients out for a night. These are the people who help pay the salaries for the players.

What happens, though, when an argument over money becomes the breaking point for 46 million people who have lost their jobs in the last three months? What happens when the casual fan says enough is enough? I cover sports and get paid to do so and I’m getting tired of this.

The country could use baseball right now. Baseball helped bring everyone together after the 9/11 attacks. Baseball is the sport that seems to bring unity to people. In 1994, baseball took a big hit when they cancelled the World Series. It was the summer of 1998 that helped baseball recover. The chase for 62 home runs helped everyone forget what happened four years prior.

If baseball can’t get this figured out and they cancel the season, will they be able to recover? MLB is walking down a slippery slope right now and everyone is waiting to see what happens.