UPDATE (3/10/2022 3:58 p.m. E.T.): Major League Baseball owners and players struck a tentative labor deal on Thursday, possibly saving a full 162-game season this spring and summer that may start on April 7.
We have lost the March 31 opening day of the 2022 Major League Baseball season, and that is a tragedy.
We have lost it to an owners’ lockout of the players, and that is nothing short of enraging. Thirty incredibly wealthy owners and their hand puppet, Commissioner Rob Manfred, have decided there will be no baseball until their pockets are further lined with profits.
Not only does the lockout guarantee that fans will see fewer games: After two seasons where opening day was canceled or complicated by Covid concerns, the lockout also represents a potential loss of young fans — including my 13-year-old son’s group of friends — who became born-again baseball lovers during the pandemic. What a waste.
Manfred behaves as one who detests baseball. He laughed and joked with reporters while announcing the cancellation of games.
There’s a new generation of enticing stars — including American League MVP Shohei Ohtani, who can hit the ball farther and throw a pitch faster than almost anyone on the planet, and second-generation charisma machines Vlad Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr. and Bo Bichette — with the potential to draw in young fans for the first time since Ken Griffey Jr. turned his hat backward during the Home Run Derby.
Manfred behaves as one who detests baseball. He laughed and joked with reporters while announcing the cancellation of games. This is the same Manfred who called the World Series trophy merely “a piece of metal” in his attempt to explain why he didn’t crack down on the Houston Astros for cheating. His contempt for the sport, its fans and our basic intelligence — for example, trying to convince us that owning a baseball team isn’t that great of an investment while refusing to open up its books — is fueling the rage from players and fans.
There’s no guarantee that we’ll see MLB’s potential future Hall of Famers anytime soon, but even more concerning is that we won’t see the league’s celebration of its past. April 15 marks the 75th anniversary, the diamond anniversary, of Jack Roosevelt Robinson smashing MLB’s racist color line and took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
We would expect a celebration this year to be particularly beautiful and poignant not only because it celebrates 75 years but also because Jackie Robinson’s widow, the legendary Rachel Robinson, turns 100 in July. Rachel Robinson was with Jackie Robinson every step of the way during an otherwise lonesome journey.









